PROJECT

KC-46A Depot Maintenance Hangar & Airfield Infrastructure

Our team designed a first-of-its-kind hangar for the KC-46A depot at Tinker Air Force Base. The 125,740-square-foot facility has a unique control system that allows it to fulfill three functions: corrosion control, fuel cell, and general purpose maintenance.

When the full campus build-out is complete, these functions will happen in separate facilities, with this hangar devoted to corrosion control.

Part of the base’s KC-46A depot maintenance program, this project included design of the two-bay depot maintenance hangar, mechanical systems building, major utilities and airfield pavement. This project provides depot-level maintenance and infrastructure to support the full build-out of the KC-46A program. Our role included risk management to address extensive phasing for multiple contractors and coordination of work so that ongoing operations were not jeopardized.

Each 38,500-square foot hangar bay has single-story lean-to structures attached. A central two-story, T-shaped structure connects the bays and includes an administration and warehouse storage area on the ground floor and a 6,055-square-foot second-floor mechanical mezzanine. A separate single-story, 19,740-square-foot utility systems building houses chillers, electrical panels, air compressors and fire pump room with fire water storage tanks.

Client

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Tulsa District

Location

Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma

Region

Southwest

Services

Federal & Military

Air Force & Air Force Reserve

Industry

Government, Military & Municipal

Awards

U.S. Air Force Citation Award for Facility Design, 2023
U.S. Green Building Council’s South Central Region Award for Community Leadership, 2023 finalist

Case Study

Want to learn more about this project?

A New High-Efficiency Hangar Design for the KC-46A Tanker

Airfield Infrastructure Design

Infrastructure development for the program included a single-lane roundabout, a precast arch construction bridge, construction access, topographic surveys and geotechnical investigations, blast analysis, stormwater management, and environmental compliance.

Airfield infrastructure included design of a new connecting taxiway, a fixed-wing aircraft parking apron, run-up pads/fueling apron, airfield lighting, access roads, a vehicle parking lot, site security perimeter fencing, and systems for fire water, stormwater and sanitary sewers, as well as for industrial waste and aircraft fuel. We designed a Type III aircraft fueling system, as well as supporting infrastructure and utilities. The airfield pavement design complies with UFC 3-260-02.

Future projects were taken into consideration with the design of the airfield pavements, taxiway widths, utility connections and locations, earthwork, clearing and grubbing, and stormwater collection to minimize maintenance and required downtime.

“(Burns & McDonnell) managed to digest massive quantities of highly technical data to develop a document that considers all customers and organizations involved and provide a superior product that the customer was elated with, all within a severely compressed time frame. This timely submission of programming data will allow the Air Force to move forward faster on the KC-46A program build-out.”

Kalli Clark, Deputy Chief

Engineering & Construction Division, USACE Tulsa District

Design Success

The design process began with charrettes under a separate master planning task order. Based on the plans developed during those charrettes, the team avoided potential design complications and set out on a successful path for this project.

The hangar was designed per UFC 1-200-02, and the finished hangar achieved LEED Silver certification. Over 60% of construction waste was diverted from landfill and over 24% of building products were manufactured with recovered materials. Whole-building energy modeling projected 45.8% energy efficiency compared to the ASHRAE 90.1 baseline. We performed life cycle cost analysis for building systems and developed the energy modeling using eQuest. Sustainable features include cool roofing materials with SRI 78, native vegetation that eliminates the need for supplemental irrigation. Requirements for outside air were exceeded by 30%.