The hangar, 306 m long, 220 m wide and 107 m high, is probably the largest hall in Europe. It was designed for the construction of the CargoLifter airship, a kind of flying crane that can lift loads of up to 160 t and transport them over distances up to 10,000 km. The hangar was conceived as a minimum volume to?accommodate two airships. The central section of the hall consists of five four-chord arched steel girders at 35 m centres with a membrane system between them. Constructed with tubular members, the girders are 8 m deep and are made up of 17 straight segments each more than 18 m in length. Wind bracing is fixed to the lower chords; torsion bracing to the upper chords The feet of the arches are anchored in reinforced concrete plinths nearly 9 m high. The gates at the two ends consist of six movable and two fixed elements. They can be opened by means of dollies on rails, and pivot about a huge pin 1 m in diameter at the crest.