An aircraft hangar, often simply called a hangar, is a large-span, single-story building used for parking and maintaining aircraft. It is a primary building at airports or aircraft maintenance bases. The layout and structural form of hangars vary depending on the volume and requirements of aircraft maintenance.
Aircraft hangars can be categorized by function into parking hangars and maintenance hangars. Parking hangars have no maintenance function and are solely for aircraft storage, while maintenance hangars provide major and intermediate maintenance services. They can also be classified by maintenance processes into painted hangars and non-painted hangars. Painted hangars have specific requirements regarding building construction, fire protection, ventilation, electrical equipment, and operational processes.
Modern large-scale maintenance hangars are often likened to "4S shops" for aircraft, providing "one-stop" maintenance services including scheduled airframe maintenance, accessory repair, full aircraft painting, and passenger-to-freighter conversions.
