Hangar Y

The southwest facade of hangar Y, 2011

The northeast facade of hangar Y, 2002

The dirigible "La France" on August 9, 1884 above Hangar Y in a contemporary representation.

The Hangar Y ( French hangar , German "shed, shelter," plural hangars ) is the oldest originally called airship hangar used hangar in the world. It is located near Meudon near Paris .

construction

The hangar was built in 1879 by the Établissement Central de l'Aérostation Militaire , a research and training institute of the French army for aerostats , under the direction of Capitaine de Génie Charles Renard (1847-1905), next to an existing workshop. It was created using elements of an iron structure that the architect Henri de Dion (1828–1878) had created for the machine hall of the 1878 World's Fair in Paris. Since the building layout plan of Aérostation was marked with the letter Y, it was under the name Hangar Y known.

use

Charles Renard, his brother Paul (1854–1933) and Lieutenant Arthur Constantin Krebs (1850–1935) built the dirigible La France in Hangar Y in 1879 . Krebs was transferred to Meudon in 1878. He was responsible for the electric propulsion of the airship and incorporated the first known engine test laboratory into the complex. As researchers and inventors, all three achieved outstanding achievements, and not just in aviation.

Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs took off from Hangar Y on August 9, 1884 for the first fully guided flight, on which the airship returned to its starting point. La France drove a circle of approx. 7.6 km, which included the village of Villacoublay . This was repeated several times until 1885.

For experiments with tethered balloons , Krebs in Meudon also constructed a horse-drawn and steam-powered cable winch with two cable drums attached in parallel and a separating device for the tether. A version improved by him was still used in the First World War for artillery observation balloons.

Through the trips of La France , Hangar Y became a place of national importance in the collective memory of the French.

The hangar was put on the nomination list as a UNESCO World Heritage Site by two French ministries in 2002 .