h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

That's where me breaking the floor comes in. I was putting one of the sheds to one of those four uses.

I think I mentioned that they are often used in films or TV.

They're a good place for gangsters to have a plane stashed to escape abroad and maybe use as a secret place to shoot the police/spy who's been discovered to have infiltrated them.

Also a good place to maybe have a stunt where you fly a small plane through the gap as the hangar doors slowly close...

Current uses for the sheds? You mean, they've not been redeveloped as executive townhouses? I'm impressed!

OK Orcus. One of them is now a dedicated film stage. The 007 stage at Pinewood is 334 feet long and 40 feet high. The Cardington sheds are 812 feet long and 157 feet high. I've been in both of them, and there's no comparison. The Cardington shed is simply the biggest single room I've ever been in.

By the way that jet and closing door stunt needed doors at both ends, which you don't get at Cardington. It was a hobby of the man who did it. I know because Cubby Broccoli told me (swank swank).

And thank you for the town house thought, Icy. Definite points for that.

While you're thinking about it, here's a story of old Cardington, back when there was pink all over the map of the world, toilet paper was hard and Health and Safety was still a gleam in a bureaucrat's eye.

They needed workers to clamber up the skeleton of the airship, tying the gas bags into place, that sort of thing. An unemployed ex-steeplejack turned up, but when faced with the scale of the thing his nerve failed him. (I sympathise, I felt giddy walking about the floor).

So they sat him down, gave him a glass of beer to steady his nerves, and gave him another go!

He climbed up the metalwork steady as a rock and worked there till the airship was completed.

Oh, and I should have mentioned, I was making a film there when I broke the floor. Not a big feature film, a little technical thing. We just needed a cheap place out of the wind.

I must try that trick with the beer! Not sure 'going up to the loft' qualifies, but you never know.

It's a good excuse, anyway, Icy. "I'm going up into the loft. Now the experts at this sort of thing, round at Cardington, recommend a swift pint before tackling something like that."

They are indeed h u g e.
The Boeing building is bigger, of course (in terms of volume), as is the VAB (volume and height).
(I've been in all 3 and really, those sizes aren't easily *classified* when first visits are separated by years - and especially when smallest first?)

I don't think the Boeing building is subject to this, but afaik, the VAB is the only place that uses air conditioning to stop it raining. (Or did).

All three! Very impressive. Did you get to try the toilet paper?

Yep, all three.
. Cardington first, with trials on a defence project, mid 70s.
. VAB next, while stationed at Canaveral, as a guest of a friend who worked on the shuttles at Kennedy, '80ish.
. Boeing, as a tourist, late 90s.

Toilet paper? None of the above. Things were all working properly in those distant days.

Oh and yes, flown by a colleague, helping out with his costs, over the Capes and allowed surprisingly close to VAB. It's eNormous.

Incidentally, can anyone confirm my observation about rain inside the Cardington sheds?

No knowledge of rain, but it was incredibly cold. All big enclosed spaces have that problem, of course.