Inside Google’s billion dollar airport – complete with WWII Blimp Hangars

There’s this spectacular looking structure on the drive between San Francisco and San Jose which has always taken my interest.

A little research shows it is a Hangar – for large – enormous in fact – blimps.

So, I decided to take a closer look:

This is Hangar One at Moffett Field. A joint military and civilian airstrip which now counts Google as it’s majority owner – well, they’ve got a 60 year lease on 1000 acres of it, so that’s good enough right?

The history of the place is stunning, and the hangars themselves are fascinating, given they were built for a wing of the Navy Airforce that really never did last more than the second world war it’s a mammoth commitment really.

Today, they are more famous as places where Mythbusters filmed than anything else – but what next for these iconic structures? Google’s lease has them paying for the refurbishment, what they do with them after that – goodness knows!

Well worth a look if you’re driving by – you can get really close up, and the Moffett Field Historical Society have a nice little museum you can look through too right alongside Hangar One.