2-879-168 - Historic England Archive/Heritage Images

Heathrow Airport, BEA Servicing Hangar, Heathrow, Hillingdon, London, 15/05/1970. A steel octagonal column being lowered by a crane into a shaft, part of the construction of foundations for the BEA aircraft servicing hangar at Heathrow Airport. In October 1969 Laing announced that its Industrial Engineering Branch had been awarded a contract for construction of an aircraft servicing hangar for British European Airways at Heathrow Airport. It was the company’s second major contract at Heathrow, following the completion of the BEA and BOAC cargo terminal. The hangar was designed to accommodate new airbus jets and existing aircraft. For the foundations, four 75ft shafts were sunk, the lower sections of which were filled with concrete before octagonal columns, each with a diameter of 8ft, were lowered into the shafts. The remainder was then filled with concrete, and the roof was eventually supported by the columns. Braithwaite engineers manufactured the steelwork for the columns and roof; C V Buchan sank the shafts.