Municipal Airport, Florida
Materials
Imagine walking out to your hangar to see its 74-foot door in a twisted heap, lying on the ground. Tom Vaughan, a manager at two Florida municipal airports, recently experienced this headache, discovering inferior hinges were the culprit. Even worse, the company that sold and installed the door went out of business.
Although it’s possible for large doors to be damaged during tornado or hurricane conditions, weather conditions were not a factor in this failure, just inferior hinges.
“It looked like the top hinges broke off starting with a structural failure at one corner, which created a domino effect halfway across to the side of the building,” Vaughan says. “There were several planes in the hangar at the time, but they thankfully weren’t damaged. This calamity put the hangar out of operation for four months.”
Vaughan started a search for a new door online, where he discovered Schweiss Doors. About the same time, a local tenant returned from an air show, where he saw the Schweiss Doors display and told Vaughan about them.
The hangar now has a 74-foot, 3-inch by 19-foot, 2-inch custom-made hydraulic door from Schweiss Doors. The door is engineered for a 175-mph wind load with a 12-volt back-up system and reinforced with a strong external truss and Schweiss’ hydraulic frame with triple push tubes. It has a hydraulic two-speed valve that enables the door to slow down at the top and bottom cycle for smoother operation.
The new hydraulic door arrived in three weeks in good condition. “We asked our local aviation engineer to look at the Schweiss door from his engineering standpoint,” Vaughan explains. “He took pictures and we gave him a brochure and he said he was going to take it back to his engineering firm to tell them if they have any future clients interested in putting up a door to direct them to Schweiss.”
Vaughan knows where to turn if he ever needs another hydraulic door: “I can tell you one thing: If we ever have to replace any other doors, it will be with a Schweiss door and not any other brand. Getting a new Schweiss hydraulic door fixed this dilemma, but you can imagine, there are 69 more of these doors … to worry about each day.”
Hydraulic Door Manufacturer: Schweiss Doors
PHOTO: Schweiss Doors