I am working on a conservation study of a Royal Australian Air Force
fighter airfield constructed in northern Australia during 1940-42 and
still in service, which has a number of extant buildings dating from
the Second World War.

Specifically, I am interested in learning more about the construction
methods used in several hangars and workshops.  The first generation
were specified in 1938 and contructed in 1940.  They have sawtooth
roofs with welded steel trusses, and I believe they are standard
pre-war RAF designs.  The second generation were constructed in 1942
in the emergency following the entry of Japan into the war, and they
are prefabricated Butler and Bellman hangars with bolted steel
trusses, probably built from components shipped from the USA.  There
is also a third category of post-1942 hangars - not on this site but
elsewhere in the region - cheaply built from hand-sawn and nailed
hardwood trusses.  Some of these are very large; 100m or more in
length.

I would like to have further information in order to make comparative
judgements on the rarity and significance of these buildings.  I
assume that many buildings similar to these once existed at airfields
in the UK and elsewhere, although relatively few survive today.  Can
anyone direct me to background information on the design and
construction of buildings such as these, and give me some impression
of how many survive today?  I am familiar with the Australian
literature on Second World War buildings, and have searched library
catalogues and the internet, but I am sure there are specialist
studies I am not aware of.

Peter Bell
Consulting Historian
Australia