Hangar No. 1 at U.S. Naval Air Station Wildwood
Cape May’s rise in the 19th century as a popular summer resort is well known and appreciated. After all, we lay claim to one of the largest collections of Victorian-period wooden architecture in the United States. Buildings are the most public of arts and locally they serve as frequent reminders of American life two centuries ago.
What about life in the last century? America arrived firmly on the world stage in the 20th century. The proliferation of skyscrapers and suburban single-family homes are but two architectural manifestations that underscore that elevated global status. As a defining accomplishment, however, it is our victory in World War II by defeating the Axis powers that stands alone as our greatest triumph of the last 100 years. The concrete lookout tower on Sunset Boulevard, now open for visitation thanks to Cape May MAC, and the vestige of a decommissioned concrete bunker near the Cape May Lighthouse at the State Park are close-by examples of efforts dating to wartime that helped protect the Delaware Bay.
Yet there is another nearby reminder of WWII’s consequential success, one that is also monumental in its size and reach. As the lookout tower and bunker were of critical importance to coastal defense, Hangar No. 1 at United States Naval Air Station Wildwood (NASW) was of critical importance to air supremacy in the Pacific theater.
Surrounded by what has become Cape May County Airport, construction of Hangar No. 1, a “Standard Wood Hangar” designed by the Department of the Navy, began in October 1942, ten months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It is estimated that 20 to 30 hangars of this type were constructed during World War II, but very few remain. It was used nearly exclusively for the training of Navy pilots for dive-bombing missions from the middle of 1943 to early 1945.
Dive-bombing entails specially designed aircraft—with names like Hellcat and Avenger—that descend swiftly at a steep angle to deliver their payloads with an element of surprise. Such missions were highly accurate and therefore much more dangerous. Sandwiched between the open waters of Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, NASW was ideally positioned for dive-bomb training. Activity at the hangar peaked in October 1944, with 16,994 takeoffs and landings, at a time when the station accommodated as many as 200 airplanes. 42 airmen died during training exercises at NASW, and it is in the memory of their sacrifice that Hangar No. 1 has been dedicated as an aviation museum.
In addition to its contribution to the war effort, Hangar No. 1 is compelling as a piece of architecture—albeit without embellishment. The most notable aspect is that the structure is entirely wooden, except for the steel bolts and plates that fasten the wood components together. The use of wood was dictated by the pressing need to divert as much metal as possible to the production of the hardware of war, notably tanks, ships, and airplanes. The area under its main roof is larger than an acre. Each of its 26 overhead heavy timber trusses span 120 feet to create two 24,000 square feet column-free bays. Its12 retractable hangar doors, measuring 30 feet high by 20 feet wide each, glide on railroad tracks to enclose 240 linear feet of the hangar’s east and west elevations. With 144 windowpanes each, the hangar doors have 3,456 pieces of glass overall.
Like many feats of structural design, such as bridges, the maintenance needs of Hangar No. 1 are ongoing and unending. The hangar was constructed swiftly, economically, and with relatively little thought to longevity. Current challenges all center on preserving a structure well into the future that was designed for short-term use. Its rushed construction served a well-defined and immediate need to meet the colossal challenges of the war effort. Because of such demands, however, atypical construction materials were sometimes used.
The flat main roof was originally made of built-up asphaltic layers over multiple 1/2-inch layers of gypsum board, for example, rather than over a wood or metal deck. While asphalt roofing is still common, the substrate of gypsum boards would be highly uncommon if built today. With routine maintenance, the roof was sufficiently watertight until recent years. When the top layer of roofing began to leak, the gypsum boards became waterlogged and, therefore, heavier. A meaningful long-term solution became an imperative.
With financial support from the New Jersey Historic Trust and the Cape May County Open Space Fund, the entire main roof assembly of 48,000 square feet was removed and replaced in stages over two years, and a new membrane roof was installed over new insulation and steel decking. In so doing, the weight of the roof was reduced by half. Because the new roof is so much lighter, the trusses’ safety factor—their capacity to support loading—also increased significantly. Because modern insulation has been incorporated into the new roof, its R-value (or insulation performance) increased by 16-fold.
The hangar’s repurposing as NAS Wildwood Aviation Museum is the brainchild of Joseph Salvatore, MD. Having grown up in Wildwood, Dr. Salvatore remembers the air station when it was active and recalls the impact it had on the Jersey Cape. A power couple in service of local history, Dr. Salvatore and his wife Patricia Anne first turned their attention to the Historic Cold Spring Village in 1971, and subsequently to the hangar.
By 1995, the hangar was underappreciated, neglected, and in need of critical repairs. Under Dr. Salvatore’s stewardship, Hangar No. 1 was listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places in 1997. During numerous undertakings to preserve, repurpose, and upgrade Hangar No. 1, the NASW Foundation which operates the museum has garnered support from a wide range of private and public sources, including the Cape May County Open Space Fund, the US Department of Transportation, and the New Jersey Historic Trust.
Dr. Salvatore is ahead of his time in having recognized the importance of the contributions made by the Greatest Generation, Americans of the 1940s in their late teens and twenties, and how Hangar No. 1, the training which took place there, and the lives lost during training exercises, reflect that greatness.
