Unique Hangar Complex Built in Pápa

Coordinated by the NATO Airlift Management Program Office (NAM PO), the project started in 2015 after a three-year planning process. The construction was progressing on schedule all along, so this spring the experts of the Heavy Airlift Wing moved to the office spaces as well as the supply, maintenance and interim cargo facilities. The project, totaling around HUF 9.5 billion, has been completed, so the newly inaugurated hangar is now a unique structure not only in Europe but also in the world.

Speaking at the ceremony, Heavy Airlift Wing Commander Col. Trevor W. Nitz told us that the hangar itself is one of its kind. There is no other C-17 specific-built hangar in the world that can do everything that this hangar can do for the HAW personnel. It allows them to do maintenance all year around, not depending on the weather conditions. It also has the ability to act as a wash rack so they can wash the aircraft and the engines in there, they can do some painting and additionally they can do fuel cell maintenance. These four functions in this one facility make it very unique. Even on the US air bases where the C-17 have so far flown for the annual Home Station Check, one will find separate facilities with the infrastructures for many of these things.

“The facilities are optimized for the things we want to do with it. Everybody is close together, we have offices arranged in such a way that people who have to work together are close together in one office. The biggest benefit from the financial perspective is that from now on we don’t have to fly the planes at least once a year to the United States for having maintenance done, because we can do that in Pápa. That is a big efficiency improvement for the program that also the nations will benefit from", Wiek Noldus, the program manager at the NATO Airlift Management Program Office told us.

In his speech, NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment Ernest J. Herold emphasized that the now inaugurated complex has outstanding importance in responding to security threats to NATO member countries. He added that according to plans, the Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) will continue operating at Pápa Air Base in Hungary until at least 2038.

The ceremony was attended by Dr. László Firicz, Administrative State Secretary at the Ministry of Defence and Deputy Chief of Defence Lt.-Gen. Dr. Zoltán Orosz.

Photos by the author