11 Responses to “Tustin Hangar”

1. Tim Says:
   December 31st, 2007 at 1:35 pm

   There are two of these by the way… Identical, sitting next to each other at a right angle. The base is now closed and the city and the county have been fighting over who is responsible to figure out what the heck to do with the hangers. I’m pretty sure at this point, the city owns one, and the county owns the other. I haven’t heard a definitive plan yet…

2. Andrew Says:
   December 31st, 2007 at 3:06 pm

   These are right around the corner from my house. From what I can tell the city gave people an opportunity to give a reasonable use for them but in the end nothing was approved and they will be tearing them down. Many people say that it didn’t really matter since they had their minds set on tearing them down for the money. The place is made out of wood so it would cost a lot to rebuild it and reinforce it.

3. aj Says:
   December 31st, 2007 at 5:11 pm

   I used to work right next to these. Part of the old base (SE corner) has been turned into a sizable commerce center (stores, dining, theatre, etc). Last I heard, one of the hangars will be leveled, the other will be used as an “indoor entertainment center” to contain, among other things, bowling.

   It’s a shame… I forget the exact designation, but this pair of structures were the world’s largest… non-supported concrete structures? Something like that. I’ll be sad to see even one go :(

4. Michael Jackson Says:
   December 31st, 2007 at 9:10 pm

   http://jacksonfx.com/JacksonFX/Tustin_Blimp_Hanger.html

   Here’s some pictures taken a bit more recently than the one shown.

5. boast Says:
   December 31st, 2007 at 10:52 pm

   they filmed the end sequence to Close Encounters Of The Third Kind in one of those hangars.

6. Some guy Says:
   January 1st, 2008 at 3:17 pm

   I miss driving by the base and seeing the CH-46’s and CH53’s all lined up outside the hangers and having the F/A-18’s from El Toro rumbling overhead.

   You simply cannot get an appreciation for how big these hangers are until you’re right next to them. I hope they find a way to keep them.

7. Evan Says:
   January 2nd, 2008 at 3:03 am

   the Northernmost hanger WILL be saved, but the other one will be demolished. There were other movies filmed in them - The Hindenberg, from the Earth to the Moon, and scenes from Pearl Harbor were also shot outside them. They were and still are the largest spanned NON-CONCRETE structures in the world.

8. cmholm Says:
   January 18th, 2008 at 2:08 am

   It’s been a while, but I grew up in the neighborhoods surrounding the base and these hangers. Wood framing with corrigated metal sheet exteriors. The blimps were before my time, but the sense of space inside was awe-inspiring. Trivia for JFK assassination freaks/fans: As his last NCO, my dad escorted Lee Harvey Oswald to the front gate and saw him off the day Lee was discharged from the Marines.

9. arprtguy Says:
   May 5th, 2008 at 10:08 pm

   I served for three years at Tustin. During bad weather we would hangar all of the helicopters inside the two hangars. From the ground looking up, these were truly engineering wonders.

   It would be a crying shame if these were torn down. There are similar hangars to these in Oregon where the blimps were hangared for offshore patrol duty.

10. jl Says:
    October 19th, 2008 at 6:10 pm

    Yep I remember passing by these en route to the beach as in another comment the last I heard 1 will be saved I’ve heard the other will be demo’d something like dry rot or rat infestation put it beyond restroration.
    I’ve heard the one at Moffett is in even worse shape (lead based paint or the doors too rusted) altho I dunno the fate of it (hope it can be saved). There was a smaller similar structure near Santa Rosa but it has long since been demo’ed but I think if you can google extinct airfields you can see an aerial pic of what remains of the runway and other old pics, which like this is being turned into commerce parks, housing and such.

11. jl Says:
    October 19th, 2008 at 6:14 pm

    As in other comments in this group these structures did get their own weather inside.

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