Save Hangar B - A WWII Engineering Marvel
The Issue
UPDATE — SEPTEMBER 2026: HANGAR B HAS A PATH FORWARD
When this petition was launched, the future of Hangar B was deeply uncertain. A December 2025 windstorm had torn open a large section of its roof, the Tillamook Air Museum was closed, and the enormous World War II structure faced the possibility that adequate repairs might never be made.
Important progress has now changed that outlook.
The Port of Tillamook Bay Commissioners have approved a term sheet for a long-term land lease and the future sale of Hangar B to Vintage Aviation Museum, a nonprofit aviation-preservation organization. Vintage Aviation Museum is preparing to assume operation of the Tillamook Air Museum and become the hangar’s future owner and operator.
The Tillamook Air Museum name will remain. Vintage Aviation Museum plans to move most of its aircraft collection to Tillamook, return the entire hangar to aviation-related use, reopen the museum and undertake the phased repair, restoration and long-term preservation of Hangar B.
Work to remove the storm-damaged roof flap and complete necessary asbestos abatement is scheduled to begin September 14, 2026. Vintage Aviation Museum and the Tillamook Air Museum are preparing contractors, materials and plans so permanent repairs can follow as quickly as possible.
This is meaningful progress—but it is not the end of the preservation effort.
Hangar B remains one of the world’s largest surviving clear-span wooden structures and one of the most remarkable physical monuments to America’s World War II home front. Built at Naval Air Station Tillamook in 1943, it housed Navy blimps that helped protect the Pacific Coast and American shipping during the war.
Its preservation will require sustained work, substantial funding and continued support from the community, aviation organizations, preservation groups, businesses, foundations and individual Americans who understand what would be lost if this extraordinary structure disappeared.
This petition was created to add another public voice to the effort to save Hangar B. Because a credible path toward preservation and renewed museum operations has now emerged, the petition is being closed to new signatures while remaining online as a record of that effort.
Hangar B is not yet fully repaired or permanently secure—but she has something she urgently needed:
A future.
The work now moves from finding a path forward to helping Vintage Aviation Museum, the Tillamook Air Museum, the Friends of the Tillamook Air Museum and the Tillamook community carry that preservation effort through to completion.
Thank you to everyone who signed, shared and helped tell the world that Hangar B is worth saving.
The mission continues.
#SaveHangarB
23
The Issue
UPDATE — SEPTEMBER 2026: HANGAR B HAS A PATH FORWARD
When this petition was launched, the future of Hangar B was deeply uncertain. A December 2025 windstorm had torn open a large section of its roof, the Tillamook Air Museum was closed, and the enormous World War II structure faced the possibility that adequate repairs might never be made.
Important progress has now changed that outlook.
The Port of Tillamook Bay Commissioners have approved a term sheet for a long-term land lease and the future sale of Hangar B to Vintage Aviation Museum, a nonprofit aviation-preservation organization. Vintage Aviation Museum is preparing to assume operation of the Tillamook Air Museum and become the hangar’s future owner and operator.
The Tillamook Air Museum name will remain. Vintage Aviation Museum plans to move most of its aircraft collection to Tillamook, return the entire hangar to aviation-related use, reopen the museum and undertake the phased repair, restoration and long-term preservation of Hangar B.
Work to remove the storm-damaged roof flap and complete necessary asbestos abatement is scheduled to begin September 14, 2026. Vintage Aviation Museum and the Tillamook Air Museum are preparing contractors, materials and plans so permanent repairs can follow as quickly as possible.
This is meaningful progress—but it is not the end of the preservation effort.
Hangar B remains one of the world’s largest surviving clear-span wooden structures and one of the most remarkable physical monuments to America’s World War II home front. Built at Naval Air Station Tillamook in 1943, it housed Navy blimps that helped protect the Pacific Coast and American shipping during the war.
Its preservation will require sustained work, substantial funding and continued support from the community, aviation organizations, preservation groups, businesses, foundations and individual Americans who understand what would be lost if this extraordinary structure disappeared.
This petition was created to add another public voice to the effort to save Hangar B. Because a credible path toward preservation and renewed museum operations has now emerged, the petition is being closed to new signatures while remaining online as a record of that effort.
Hangar B is not yet fully repaired or permanently secure—but she has something she urgently needed:
A future.
The work now moves from finding a path forward to helping Vintage Aviation Museum, the Tillamook Air Museum, the Friends of the Tillamook Air Museum and the Tillamook community carry that preservation effort through to completion.
Thank you to everyone who signed, shared and helped tell the world that Hangar B is worth saving.
The mission continues.
#SaveHangarB
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on June 4, 2026