"Old Lady" is what they lovingly call the CH 53 helicopter stationed at the historic barracks. On Monday, the topping-out ceremony for the newly constructed maintenance hangar 8 - the helicopter's new home - will be celebrated. The roof structure of the hangar came from the CHRISTMANN + PFEIFER factory in Breidenbach. The imposing steel structure was delivered over 4 nights in mid-March on 4 heavy haulage vehicles. It was then welded together on-site to form a complete structure measuring 67 meters in length by 5.50 meters in height - to the full satisfaction of the structural analysis engineers.

These new dimensions ensure that the helicopter can be adequately maintained in future. To date this was only possible if the aircraft were partly dismantled and the rotor blades folded away or if the engineers braved the wind and weather outside. The new solution makes it possible to span a length of 67 meters without the need for additional internal supports. Such supports would have been in the way of the huge transport helicopter which weighs some 19 tons and has a rotor diameter of 22 meters. The "Old Lady" can now reach a really old age...