Hangar owners measure in wingspans and tail heights. A T-hangar tenant wants a door that opens without a fight and a slab that drains. A county airport board wants a row of hangars that will rent before the grant paperwork closes. A maintenance operator wants a bay deep enough to pull a whole fuselage inside. All three are buying a big, simple volume with a very large door on one end, and all three tend to call a metal building contractor because that is the quickest way to get enclosed space on a ramp.
Oklahoma has 131 public use airports and two international hubs, Will Rogers World Airport and Tulsa International, plus a long list of regional and municipal fields. Some are busy; many have a single runway, a fuel pump and a waiting list for hangar space. The aviation work we see runs from a single private hangar at a rural strip to a multi-bay maintenance shed where schedule is counted in aircraft out of service per day.
This page is for the people who sign for those buildings: airport managers, authorities, fixed-base operators, maintenance shops and private owners.
Oklahoma aviation is bigger than most people realize. Tulsa International carries a major airline maintenance base on 246 acres with about 3.3 million square feet of hangar and shop space, and the airport reports more than 700 acres of development land. A jet engine shop in Tulsa is expanding from 28 to 46 work bays. At Clinton, a spaceport campus opened a large hangar in October 2025 for heavy aircraft maintenance. Each of those investments is a sign that tenants want space near an apron and are willing to wait for it.
Smaller airports see a quieter version of the same demand. Ardmore has a 9,002-foot runway, Duncan 6,326 feet, Durant 6,800 feet and Ada 6,203 feet, and any of them can host a corporate hangar if the numbers work. Aircraft owners ask whether a hangar will pay for itself in rent, and the answer depends on the fuel sales, the waiting list and the cost of a ground lease. We help with the construction side of that math.
The common hangar types are the T-hangar row, the box hangar and the large clear-span maintenance bay. A hangar built in steel shares a lot with any pre-engineered building, but its door is the main event. The opening can run most of the width of the building, and the header above it carries a heavy load. We coordinate with the overhead and bi-fold hangar door makers early, because the structural opening, the track and the power have to match before the frame is ordered.
Think about the aircraft first. Wingspan sets the door width, tail height sets the door height and the fuel and hazardous materials rules set the fire protection. Foam suppression, open floor drains and ventilation are often governed by the local fire marshal and the insurer, and we ask for their requirements before design. Add space for a shop, a tool room and an office along one side, and the design starts to look like a small aircraft hangar campus.
Hangars sit beside other uses. A maintenance shop looks a lot like a plant, so owners of both can read our manufacturing page for the details on crane runways and clear heights. Parts distributors ship from buildings like those on our warehousing and distribution page, and city-owned airports follow the public bid rules we describe for municipal buyers.
Some aviation owners also need a smaller storage building or a fleet garage for ground equipment. We can build those on the same pad and the same schedule, and we price them as separate lines so the hangar itself stays clean. Owners who ship parts in and out can compare notes with our warehousing and distribution work on dock layout.
Airport sites carry special rules. Federal funding often comes with conditions, and any construction near a runway needs review for height and location relative to the airfield. The FAA process can add weeks, and a crane working near an approach path needs its own coordination. We do not guess about these. We ask the airport manager for the layout plan, then design the building and the crane plan to fit it.
Oklahoma's minimum building codes are set by the Uniform Building Code Commission, the International Codes apply, and cities adopt their own editions, so the adopted edition at your airport's jurisdiction decides the design. Public buildings funded with public money must also provide accessibility features, which applies to a city-owned hangar with a public office or restroom. That is a small line in the plan that gets forgotten until inspection day.
Aviation tenants have a short window. A lease starts on a date, an engine contract begins on a date, and a hangar that is two months late means a plane parked outside on rented ramp. We build the schedule backward from the move-in date, with the package order, the slab and the door delivery as the three items to watch. Hangar doors in particular can have a longer lead time than the frame, which is why they are ordered with the building and not after.
Weather matters on an open apron. A slab poured on a windy afternoon dries differently than one in a calm morning, and a frame standing without sheeting acts like a sail. The Weather Service counts 4,518 Oklahoma tornadoes since records began in 1950, so we plan erection to close in sections quickly, with bracing complete before we leave the site each day. Owners with fuel storage or de-icing also need containment and drainage, and we place those details on the plan so they are not argued about later.
Tell us the aircraft, the airport and the date you need the space. We will size the door, the frame and the foundation and tell you what the airport office will want to see.
Wingspan plus a safe margin on both sides, and a height that clears the tail with room for the track. For a corporate jet or a twin, that usually means the door runs most of the width of the building. We match the structural opening to the door maker's drawings before the frame is ordered, so the header and the track are designed for the real loads.
Often yes, for height and location near the airfield, and sometimes for funded projects. The airport manager can tell you which forms apply. We build the review time into the schedule and keep the crane plan and the building height consistent with the approved layout.
Yes. Insulation, radiant or forced-air heat and a suppression system can all be added. The fire marshal and the insurer decide what is required, and it depends on use and size, so we ask early and design the foundation, the roof framing and the utilities around the answer.
The frame is similar. The difference is the door, the foundation at the door, the fire protection and the airside requirements. We split those lines out in the budget so you can see which part of the number belongs to aviation.
After permits, the package lead time and the door lead time set the pace, and erection is usually measured in weeks. We give you a date range once the door, the frame and the permit are all in view.
Tell us about the site, the building and the schedule, and we will set up a review of scope, schedule and permitting.
See the services, building types and industries we plan and manage across Oklahoma.