Anton Meier of regional SportCruiser/PiperSport distributor AeroSport Aviation offers an inside look at the massive Royal Hangar in Brunei Darussalam.
Cambridge, New Zealand-based AeroSport Aviation is the Asia Pacific representative for the SportCruiser LSA, built by Czech Sport Aircraft. As we’ve previously reported, Piper Aircraft bought the marketing and naming rights to the SportCruiser in January 2010 and rebranded it the PiperSport as a way to get the jump on its competitors in the LSA market. However, after only a year Piper pulled out of the relationship in January of this year, citing “differing business philosophies”, and the aircraft reverted to its original name.
Earlier this year, Meier flew to Brunei, the regional Piper headquarters, to oversee the delivery of a new PiperSport to Martin and Clare Takacs of Wollongong, after the aircraft had been displayed at the Singapore Airshow.
Meier recounts his eye-opening experiences on the trip below, including being invited into the Royal Hangar – which very few outsiders ever have the chance of seeing for themselves.
Investigating the delivery of the aircraft found that the ferry flight option was not feasible due to exorbitant insurance charges for the four-day flight, the uncertainty of some airports and the possibility of being held up in various places for possible lengthy periods of time depending on the amount of gratuity paid, timely life raft availability and transport etc. So the only choice was to pop the wings and tail feathers off the aircraft and containerise it for shipping.
As the Australasian distributor, I flew up to Brunei to facilitate the disassembly and transportation, and a security permit was arranged for me so I could enter the hangar and gain access to the SportCruiser, all of which seemed a little excessive at the time.
But upon arrival in Brunei and being picked up and taken to the hangar, it became quite clear why this security permit was needed. The SportCruiser was actually housed in the Royal Hangar, an area that is very seldom accessed by anybody not connected to Brunei’s royal family and one that us mere aviators normally would never get to see.
Arriving at the gates, my passport was surrendered and my security swing tag was issued and we proceeded up the one kilometre, four-lane driveway to the Royal Hangar.
The Sultan’s hangar was on the right, with the Sultan’s brother’s hangar on the left. The hangars were built in 1985 at an estimated cost of US$800 million, and this was where the SportCruiser was patiently waiting. (See photo gallery below).
The hangar was absolutely huge and I entered via the marble side entrance escorted by two armed guards. Once inside the main hangar my mouth simply dropped open. I had never seen such an enormous building – I’m sure even most airlines would love to stage their operations from here. The Royal Hangar is approximately 300m wide and 100m deep and about the height of a seven-story building. The entire roof structure is free span with only one support at 200m across the front. The entire frontage opens up to allow for the parking of perhaps five Boeing 747’s anywhere on the three-metre thick concrete floor for the entire building.
There is five overhead gantries suspended from the roof of the hangar, from which a team of staff could stand on and lower themselves down to any part of a large body aircraft to work on it. Every 50m was a two-metre high remote controlled foam gun in case of fire. These were controlled from a large viewing gallery situated up high about half way along the back row of offices, workshops and parts stores for the various aircraft that are stationed there.
But the most astonishing thing was that this enormous building was empty. The SportCruiser was tucked away almost out of sight over in one corner and a Boeing 767 was tucked away in another corner over on the other side of the hangar. A short introduction of these two aircraft for a few photos was a must before disassembly of the SportCruiser, so we towed the LSA 300m over to the 767, and the sleeping giant dwarfed the smaller aircraft.
Back in its correct corner, the SportCruiser was disassembled and packed into a 40ft container ready for shipping. The container is now on its way to Aerosport’s Brisbane base, where it will be reassembled, placed on the RA-Aus register and delivered to the Takacs, who plan on using it for flying training around Illawarra and the NSW south coast.
I feel that I was very privileged to have the opportunity to work in such a remarkable atmosphere and one that many of us would normally never experience.
For more on Aerosport Aviation click here. To read our flight test of the SportCruiser, which at the time of testing was still under the PiperSport name, click here.
VIEW IMAGES BELOW. CLICKING ON EACH IMAGE WILL ENLARGE IT.