Research Aviation Facility (RAF), 1960-1985, undated

This Series consists of the Preliminary Report of the Jefferson County Airport Industrial Park, drawings of the future NCAR RAF hangar, Short Term Facilities Plan and photographs. In 1969, funds were provided for a hangar at the Jefferson County Airport. The need for a hangar had arisen when NSF acquired in April 1968 a surplus DeHavilland buffalo aircraft from NASA for assignment to NCAR. The problem of hangaring the plane proceeded from the fact that the airport had no hangar which could accommodate its height. While one of the existing hangars could have been expanded to house the aircraft, it was considered more satisfactory and, in the long run, more economical for NCAR to construct its own hangar. In the spring of 1969 NSF agreed to provide funds for the construction. NSF would lease the land for the hangar facility from Jefferson County on a ten-year basis with renewal options. Construction was under way in the spring of 1970 and was completed by December of that year.