Today’s extensive media coverage about Hanger One and the beginning of the project to remove the exterior skin of this monolith in Mountain View , California, reminded me of the photo I bought on eBay a number of years ago. The photo below shows Hanger One as it neared completion in 1932, just after the skin had been installed.

Admiral William A. Moffett is credited with the creation of two Naval Air Stations. Moffett Field housed the dirigible Macon, built in 1933, which crashed off the Monterey coast in 1935.

Hanger One at Moffett Field was named a Naval Historical Monument in the early 1950s, and is constructed of a network of steel girders sheathed with steel panels, now being removed. The floor covers eight acres, and is 1,133 feet long and 198 feet high.

One of the most recognizable landmarks in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hanger One and the original base are significant in the history of Naval Aviation. I had the experience of entering the hanger as a child at one of many airshows.

The Moffett Field Historical Society Museum website can be found here.

Hanger One