Bessonneau hangar

The hangar, then referred to as a Bessonneau tent, was first used in the area of Maine-et-Loire, and in 1910, specifically employed to protect aircraft participating in an air race from Angers to Saumur.

By the start of the First World War, they were widely used by the Aéronautique Militaire, and as a consequence were adopted by the expeditionary forces of both the RNAS and the RFC to house aircraft in both Great Britain and France.

[1] After World War II, British military use of Bessonneau hangars continued for the purpose of storing powered aircraft and gliders operated by the Air Training Corps ('Air Cadets'), until about 1990, and the last spare parts were disposed of by RAF Stafford.

A few Bessonneau hangars then briefly survived with gliding clubs for military personnel at airfields such as Kenley, but they typically succumbed to bad weather – as happened to one of the last survivors at RAF Odiham circa 2010 – and inadequate maintenance.

[2] Two intact Bessonneau hangars are known to survive as of 2020, one near High River, in Alberta, Canada clad in plywood instead of canvas and another owned by the Fondazione Jonathan Collection in Italy.

Bessonneau hangars at Vesoul , 1911
French Morane-Saulnier L aircraft with Bessonneau hangars, probably in 1914 or 1915
Bessonneau Hangars behind a lineup of RNAS Nieuports
Four Bessonneau hangars on the newly formed aerodrome of R.A.F. Practice Camp Sutton Bridge in England during the late 1920s.
French Voisin V inside Bessonneau hangar
Bessonneau hangar being assembled in 1915 at a French airfield