History Grimbergen airfield

Grimbergen airfield was built in 1939 by the Belgian government. After the German invasion of Belgium in 1940, it became a Luftwaffe base. The control tower is a relic of the occupation. After the liberation of Grimbergen in September 1944, the airfield was used by the RAF until the end of the war.

RAF groundcrew preparing a spitfire for a mission. Grimbergen, December 1944

After the war, the airfield was used by the US army for a while for the temporary storage of army equipment. In 1947 the airfield was given over to civilian use once again, and became home to the major part of Belgium's General Aviation fleet, including the national airline Sabena's Cessna 310-equipped flying school, at which all Belgian ATP students took their training. In 1992 the Flemish Regional Government closed the airfield, but in 1997 the airfield opened again as a private airfield. The management of the airfield is in the hands of the non-profit organisation vzw Recreatief Vliegveld Grimbergen (RVG), which is led by members of the Vliegclub Grimbergen and the Sabena Aeroclub.

Alfred Hardy hangars

There are two remarkable hangars on Grimbergen airfield, designed by Alfred Hardy (1900-1965) and constructed in 1947. In the period after the war, Hardy became known with his construction method for concrete mushroom constructions. He was the only Belgian of whom a project was included in the 'Twentieth Century Engineering' retrospective (1964), held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; namely the hangars in Grimbergen.

With a central cylindrical support structure, Hardy's designing principle managed to take advantage of the many qualities of reinforced concrete. The roof consists of a dome and a hollow plate. The concrete of the cantilever plate is subject to radial compressive stress, whilst the tensile stress is being absorbed by a concentric armament.

Alfred Hardy designed hangar under construction

Finished Hangars

The first creation to which the principle is being applied is at the same time his most famous, the two plane hangars in Grimbergen. Beneath the cantilever, sports planes can be arranged radially and there is room for repair works centrally below the lamppost. The space is closed up by aluminum sliding doors. The sheer typological and functionally compact use compel admiration. With its radius of 25 meters and concrete width between 6 and 12 centimeters this also applies to the technical aspect.