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| Spotted from the back porch of the small (but pretty neat) Moffett Field Museum |
Note: Hangar One was saved from the bulldozers, but the budget and scope of hazardous waste abatement proved way too much for the local volunteer group to handle. Now the Google guys are the only ones with deep enough pockets to keep the restoration project going. The volunteers we talked to weren't all that happy about corporate America getting it's hooks into "their" hangar, but they acknowledged that it's the only way to save it.
TSG was lucky enough to experience the inside of the famous hangar at one of the last air shows at Moffett. They were giving hot air balloon rides inside the hangar. They had 4 balloons going at the same time; quite an impressive sight.
3 comments:
Such amusingly large buildings. Gotta like the idea of running hot-air balloons around in there. So what's the deal? Someone wanted to tear those things down and put something useful in their place?
My understanding is that after the Navy left, they realized (duh!) that groundwater contamination from all of the solvents and stuff was really a huge problem--it was leaching out and threatening the wetlands. So, obviously, the best plan was to rip the whole thing down.
Cooler(?) heads prevailed, though, and Hangar One appears to have been saved by Google. There's still a lot of work to do, so who knows what will become of the magnificent edifice.
On a semi-related note, if you want a good laugh, google "the horror of blimps" and read the story on the straight dope dot com.
OK. That's a really funny story.
I see a floating shark version of that blimp toy for sale from time to time . . . maybe I'll not buy that quite yet.
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