The historic aircraft of the Jonathan Collection Foundation are housed in a First World War Bessonneau hangar.
It is one of the most typical examples of airfield architecture from the dawn of aviation, and probably the only original example in the world still used for aeronautical purposes.
It is recognised as an asset of historical and cultural interest by the Italian Ministry of Culture.
The Bessonneau hangars
The Bessonneau is a modular, transportable hangar made of wooden trusses and posts with a canvas covering, with various types of external bracing struts. The structure could be erected in 48 hours by a team of 60 people.
The design is by the Frenchman Julien Bessonneau (1842-1916) and the first documented installation dates from 1912, at the Etampes airfield. The basic element was a four-piece truss with an overall length of 20 metres. The distance between trusses was 4 metres. The standard configuration had 10 trusses. By varying the number of bays, the dimensions could be adapted to the aircraft or to the erection site.
With the outbreak of the First World War, the Bessonneau became one of the hangars most used by the Entente countries. Its almost universal diffusion made its silhouette a typical element of the aviation landscape of the period, appearing in countless photographs even in remote or exotic places such as Corfu (1915), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania, 1917) and Canada (1920).
Among the biggest users of Bessonneau hangars was Great Britain, in a variety of roles and in 6-, 9- and even 12-bay configurations. The British units deployed on the Italian front brought their own Bessonneaus to the airfields of Fossalunga, Istrana and Villaverla/Thiene.
Replacement with the new Bellman type began in 1936, but the old Bessonneaus remained in use throughout the Second World War, housing among other things the Civilian Repair Units responsible for repairing fighters during the Battle of Britain.
Even after the Second World War, Bessonneaus remained widespread enough to justify updating the manuals until at least 1958 and the existence of a unit dedicated to supporting these hangars, No. 30 Maintenance Unit at Sealand, which among other things carried out six-monthly maintenance on all RAF Bessonneaus. No. 30 MU closed in 1988, leading to the decision to retire them for good.
The Bessonneau in Italy
The use of the Bessonneau in Italy is documented from at least 1916, alongside the nationally designed Aviazione type, from which it differed mainly in the shape of the trusses.
The number of Bessonneaus used in Italy is not known, but photographs show wide use at land-plane and seaplane bases. Some were also sent to the colonies: one is documented in 1921 at the Somali airfield of Omargergeb, near Mogadishu. Use continued throughout the first half of the 1920s.
Our Bessonneau
At the Nervesa della Battaglia airfield, the Jonathan Collection Foundation has a British-built Bessonneau Type H in the 9-bay configuration (10 trusses), purchased in the summer of 2009 from the Midland Warplane Museum (MWM).
In 1992 the hangar was at Wethersfield airfield, in Essex, used by No. 614 Volunteer Gliding Squadron of the Air Training Corps to shelter its gliders. During dismantling at Wethersfield, the dates 1940 and 1954 emerged on some parts, probably indicating maintenance or repairs. According to Chris Evans of the MWM, No. 614 VGS told him the hangar came "from Cyprus" (presumably RAF Akrotiri), from where it had been airlifted by a C-130 Hercules. The dates of its presence in Cyprus and its previous use are currently unknown.
While waiting to re-erect the hangar, the MWM stored it at the Charity Farm airstrip at Baxterley, near Coventry. In 2009, faced with the difficulty of finding a suitable site for re-erection, the MWM decided to sell it, advertising it on eBay.
Word reached Giancarlo Zanardo, who immediately decided to purchase it as part of the Jonathan Collection project. During inspection the structure was covered in brambles but in good general condition.
Transported to Italy in October 2010 on two articulated lorries, it was restored and re-erected at Nervesa in the following months. 70% of the structure was salvaged. The canvas covering, dating from the 1960s and rotten after long outdoor storage, was replaced with a modern one.