Blimp Hangar

scottV

First time poster, long time lurker.
Going for an antique look to frame. These are wwII blimp hangars that are being torn down to make room for houses & shopping malls.


f8 iso400 1/200

BeachBill

Tustin Hangers
Great shot. How did you get access? I drove by a couple weeks ago thinking I wanted to get in there and take some pictures.

By the way, for anyone who doesn't know, you can see these hangars (there are two) in many commercials and movies. One is currently featured (inside and out) in a Saab television commercial currently airing and I saw them in a movie on TV some time ago where they were used as a Russian facility of some sort.

Update: Here is some background information about the hangars. I think your picture is of the north/south hangar that is scheduled to be torn down.

The hangars contain 296,000 sq. feet of open space, are 1000 feet long, 296 feet wide and 170 feet high, they are among the largest wooden structures in the world. The doors on either end are 120 feet high. The door frames and the floor are the only cement parts. The doors are metal clad frames, opened and closed by electric drive motors. Each blimp hangar is tall enough to allow the Statue of Liberty inside and big enough to house 77 basketball courts, or the Eiffel Tower resting on its side.

They were built starting on April 1, 1942 at a cost of us$2.5 million each and commissioned in October 1942 (or opened in 1943, conflicting news articles) as "Santa Ana Naval Air Station". Each hangar housed six helium-filled airships that searched for enemy ships off the California coast.

Listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1978, the base is on it's way, slowly, to be consumed for housing and small industry, with hopes to keep one hangar intact (the one that is aligned east/west) as a museum and/or sound stage for Hollywood, who have already used it a few times. The one that is aligned north/south is in the way of the path of a major bottleneck in traffic, joining the streets Tustin Ranch Road in the north, to Von Karmen to the south, bisecting the base.

Here is an overhead shot from the Orange County Register.

LiquidOps

I want to know how you got access too...

i drive by this every day... I live like 5 minutes away!!!

saurora

I am so bummmed!!! :cry I have grown up and lived around these fantastic hangars all my (long) life! I had not heard (but I am not surprised) that they are being torn down. It is difficult to convey the size of these babies in photos...you did a good job. When are they going to demolish them? What a sad day that will be. I better go by and take a last look. :cry :cry :cry

scottV

Indeed it will be sad to see them go.

As for the access question; it's all a matter of timing the traffic on a relatively non-busy street with a gate. Probably wouldn't be good if anyone saw you going over. Unfortunately I only had about 20 minutes to spend there because I had somewhere to be. Im sure some great shots could be taken by more capable hands. I drive past every evening on my way home from work and seeing the sunset behind them is amazing, that is what I want to go back for. Getting shots from inside the hangars would be the ultimate, the big doors were cracked open just enough to peek in and get me salivating.

I wonder if there is actually a way that the city would grant access? I have no clue who to even contact to get such information. In the mean time I will stick with the fence plan.. If anyone else is interested let me know, it's spooky being there alone. :uhoh

saurora

I went to an antique car show there a few years ago, part of which was inside the hangar. Great place for things like that. I guess now that Jamboree is like "a freeway" these days, it would be difficult to stop your car by the side of the road and shoot!!!! Guess those days are gone! That last montage is great! I don't know who you would contact either....I imagine there will be some kind of big "hoopla" before D-day.

Jeffro

f00sion wrote:

First time poster, long time lurker.
Going for an antique look to frame. These are wwII blimp hangars that are being torn down to make room for houses & shopping malls.


f8 iso400 1/200

uhh guys...this is the wipping post.....isn't it? I don't like how the top left and bottom left corners are cut off. The lower right corner has too much of the other buildings, which could be lost, and the left corner of your subject regained...if this is a crop. It looks like you have a shot of the entire building, which I think may work better for a framed shot.

saurora

Oh....drat. I wandered into the Whipping Post again. (Sorry!) I agree with Jeffro about the upper left corner. If you can crop from a different shot and re-gain that, I feel it would work better. As far as the buildings in the right corner, if you can crop them out, that is fine. But remember that this is a historic photograph and IMO you should not clone or PS out anything that would invalidate such a shot. I do like the graininess of the shot, it is reminiscent of the era these were built.

Cinda

I like this shot a lot, and agree with the critiques. IMHO, the shot is crying out for a silouetted figure to give it scale - either on the right against the white bldg. or between the pillar and the hangar; or on the left in the corner.

So if you can talk someone into climbing the fence w/you . . . :

BeachBill

f00sion wrote:

As for the access question; it's all a matter of timing the traffic on a relatively non-busy street with a gate. Probably wouldn't be good if anyone saw you going over...

I wonder if there is actually a way that the city would grant access? I have no clue who to even contact to get such information. In the mean time I will stick with the fence plan.. If anyone else is interested let me know, it's spooky being there alone.

Not sure if I would want to try the over the fence plan...

I found this contact information on the City of Tustin website:

Tustin Marine Corps Air Station (AKA Tustin Legacy)
(714) 573-3116 Community Redevelopment Agency

Perhaps we could get a group together and approach them as a photography group wanting to take pictures of the buildings, and all go at once?

By the way, here is a cool page with history and shows the inside with blimps:
http://www.militarymuseum.org/MCASTustin.html

Update: I just found a contact form on the Tustin Legacy website so I fired off an e-mail asking about photography group access. I will let you know if/when I hear back from them.

saurora

Good luck! Let us know...hopefully it won't be 105 degrees out by then!

Skippy

Welcome To The Forum

f00sion wrote:

First time poster, long time lurker.
Going for an antique look to frame. These are wwII blimp hangars that are being torn down to make room for houses & shopping malls.


f8 iso400 1/200

Wow.......... its sad to see these things get ripped down, to make way for suburban scrawl, but it goes on all around the world

Gosh thats a great shot F00sion, and I see lots of folks have already replied to your post now that you've come out of lurking mode, we look forward to seeing more posts from you Skippy (Australia)

Awais Yaqub

Welcome to the Jungle amd thanks for sharing intresting image

wxwax

Excellent shot!

Nikolai

Thanks for doing this!

BeachBill wrote:

...I fired off an e-mail asking about photography group access. I will let you know if/when I hear back from them.

Keep us posted!
It's not my immediate backyard, but I'm kinda interested...

scottV

BeachBill wrote:

Not sure if I would want to try the over the fence plan...

I found this contact information on the City of Tustin website:

Tustin Marine Corps Air Station (AKA Tustin Legacy)
(714) 573-3116 Community Redevelopment Agency

Perhaps we could get a group together and approach them as a photography group wanting to take pictures of the buildings, and all go at once?

By the way, here is a cool page with history and shows the inside with blimps:
http://www.militarymuseum.org/MCASTustin.html

Update: I just found a contact form on the Tustin Legacy website so I fired off an e-mail asking about photography group access. I will let you know if/when I hear back from them.

Ohh sweet, definitely let us know if/when you hear back!

Angelo

Foosion: great shot and really great collage... very Hockney-esque
I'd also like to know about a shoot session on-site.

Beach Bill: great story and history lesson. Thanks a bunch. One confusing point. If the site was declared a National Historic Landmark, how is it that's it's being town down?

BeachBill

Angelo wrote:

Beach Bill: great story and history lesson. Thanks a bunch. One confusing point. If the site was declared a National Historic Landmark, how is it that's it's being town down?

Only the east/west (north) hangar was designated a National Historic Landmark and will be the central figure in a new public park. More info here.

20DNoob

BeachBill wrote:

Only the east/west (north) hangar was designated a National Historic Landmark and will be the central figure in a new public park. More info here.

Even though one will remain, it's still sad to see it go considering the importance that the blimps played in their heyday.

Angelo

BeachBill wrote:

Only the east/west (north) hangar was designated a National Historic Landmark and will be the central figure in a new public park. More info here.

Thank you.