CIMNE spin-off company Buildair has successfully erected the largest inflatable hangar ever conceived in the world in Jeddah Airport, Saudi Arabia, for Saudi Aerospace Engineering Industries (SAEI), a subsidiary of Saudi Arabian Ailines. This structure was designed and manufactured by Buildair in its facilities in Molins de Rei, Barcelona, and was completed in a 5-months record time.

The H75-SAEI hangar during the inflation process

The structure of the H75-SAEI hangar is 50% larger than the largest hangar ever designed and built by Buildair up to date, namely, the H54 hangar in Airbus Getafe Air Base in Madrid, Spain, which already was a World Record when it was built in 2013. The main body of the hangar has an outer width of 90 meter (with 8 m diameter tubes), over 30 meters in height and an approximate length of 98 meters and it has been designed to host an Airbus 300 or a Boeing 777-200ER during an expected lifetime of 7 years. The main function of this inflatable structure is to serve as shelter for the storage, construction and maintenance of the Saudi Airlines fleet.

The H75-SAEI hangar after inflation

The installation of the H75-SAEI hangar –including inflatable and textile elements, metallic parts for enclosures and anchorages and a firefighting and air-conditioning system- was shipped by sea to Jeddah in 24 containers of 40-feet each, took less than a month in setting up and was finally erected on June 26^th, 2019.

Jordi Pirretas (CEO of Buildair) (right) and Ahmad A. Rayyis (Facility Management Director of SAEI) (left) inside the H75-SAEI hangar.

Read article published in La Vanguardia