NOSE HANGARS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 June 1942, Page 4

NOSE HANGARS

SMALL BUILDING ON SKIDS. USE IN NORTHERN CANADA. MONTREAL, Quebec. The north wind blows. no less cold on aircraft mechanics servicing fighter and bomber planes on the fighting front before Moscow than on their counterparts preparing the aircraft which carry passengers, express, mail and freight to the mining camps and trading posts of the Canadian northland. The ground crews at the various bases, air engineers and helpers, service and do minor repair jobs to the planes using what is known as a “nose hangar.” The nose hangar, a small building on skids, smaller than an ordinary garage, is fitted with sliding doors and canvas curtains in one end and contains a work bench, the air engineer’s tools, spare parts, a supply of oil and a stove, which serves the double purpose of heating oil for the ships and supplying warmth for the mechanics at work. If there is elect trie current at hand, it also contains power-driven tools and grinders. The aircraft is taxied up to the hangar, the nose of the ship thrust through the open doors, and the canvas curtains fitted snugly around to keep out the cold. The engineer and his assistant can then work on the engine in comparative comfort. Occasionally a ship can develop engine trouble while in flight which necessitates a complete engine change. When this happens, the pilot sets his ship down on the nearest frozen lake, after radioing his position to the base, and awaits the arrival of a plane to bring in engineers to make the engine change and take him out. This work, which , may take several days until a new engine can be sent in and installed, is carried out in a canvas nose hangar erected over the forward part of the ship. This is heated by blowpots—small gasoline stoves—with which each plane is equipped in case the pilot has to spend the night in the bush and has to heat his engine before starting the craft in the morning..