KF Aerospace Centre for Excellence

This new facility serves as a tribute to 50 years of history and an educational hub for the history of flight. The building mimics the form of an aircraft, featuring a central hub flanked by wing-shaped hangars. The superstructure utilizes significant mass timber construction to house historical planes.

The DLT roof panel curvature for the mid-section of the hub was tested in our shop by landing the panel on top of two prefabricated jigs located near the center of the panel. To weigh down the ends to produce the required curvature, it took four people standing at each end. Figuring that this load could be replicated by ratchet straps fixed to lock blocks on site, it was confirmed that the panels would conform to the desired curvature. In its final position, the curvature would be locked in by the queenposts and cable.

The roof panel trusses of the hub structure at KF Aerospace were fabricated in our shop, each consisting of a DLT top chord, two steel queenposts and a cable. The curvature has been achieved by letting the DLT panels 'sag' over two middle supported jigs, before installing the cable and locking the curvature in place by tensioning the cables. DLT roof trusses were curved by arching the panels over two central supports, before locking in the curvature with steel cables and steel queen posts on the ground. All 53 trusses were then craned into place – resulting in an efficient and elegant roof structure – which is also intended to mimic the fuselage of a plane.

The team also installed queen posts and cables to the underside of the DLT floor of the hub in order to create an innovative timber-concrete composite truss floor system to clear span 45’ and to help control deflections and vibrations.