One of the largest wooden structures in the world will not be repaired. The Port of Tillamook Bay Board of Commissioners in Oregon voted this week against funding the restoration of Hangar B — a 1943 wartime Navy blimp hangar 300 metres long, 90 metres wide, and 60 metres tall. After 83 years of standing watch over a stretch of Pacific coastline that once hunted Japanese submarines, the hangar will be allowed to decay.

The price tag for the repair was approximately $40 million. The Port has determined it cannot raise the money.

A Wartime Engineering Marvel

Hangar B was built in 11 months in the depths of World War II. The Navy needed enormous shelters for K-class blimps assigned to anti-submarine patrols off the West Coast — airships that prowled the Pacific looking for Japanese submarines targeting shipping between San Francisco and Seattle.

Steel was rationed. Concrete was tight. So Navy engineers turned to wood — specifically to Douglas fir, which grows abundantly in Oregon’s coastal forests. The resulting building used 3.2 million board feet of lumber, with massive arched trusses that span 92 metres without a single supporting column.

When the war ended, Hangar A and Hangar B were among 17 nearly identical structures built across the United States to house the Navy’s blimp fleet. Most have since been demolished. Hangar A burned to the ground in 1992 in a fire visible from 30 miles away. Hangar B remained.

Decades as a Museum and Aviation Hub

For more than 30 years Hangar B has housed the Tillamook Air Museum, a private collection of WWII and Cold War aircraft including a P-38 Lightning, an F-14 Tomcat, and a Soviet MiG-21. The museum has been one of the largest tourist draws on the Oregon coast.

But the maintenance burden has grown. Aging wood in a coastal climate requires constant work. Recent inspections found structural issues that require an estimated $40 million to address — beyond what either the Port, the museum or any single Oregon agency can fund alone. Federal historic-preservation grants have shrunk to the point where they cannot close that kind of gap.

A Slow End

The Port board’s decision does not condemn the hangar immediately. The structure will continue to stand for years, and the museum can continue to operate within it as long as basic safety inspections allow. But without the $40 million, the long-term outcome is no longer in doubt. Without intervention, the largest surviving wooden hangar of WWII will eventually go the way of its sister — quickly, in a single dramatic moment, or slowly, beam by beam.

For now, it still stands. If you have ever wanted to see it, the next few years may be the time.

Sources: FLYING Magazine, Tillamook County news, Port of Tillamook Bay public statements.