Colony News

Request Information Join Our Newsletter

Viking Air – History Re-Written

August 1, 2008

If, like me, you have had any historic experience of doing work in Western Canada, there’s a very good chance that you have spent at least some time inside a de Havilland aircraft, in particular, the famed “Beaver” or the just as famous “Otter”. Whether on floats, skis or wheels, these aircraft, well known for their ruggedness, versatility and reliability, have been responsible for safely transporting people and cargo in and out of rugged, remote locations since 1948. I myself, have spent innumerable hours inside many of these flying workhorses, wings pitched against the wind and the needle-sharp rain, the comforting drone of the engine assuring me, “don’t worry, we’ll get there”. Despite its unfortunate demise, de Havilland Canada has left a legacy of innovative and unique aerospace designs and its products are still flying in considerable numbers worldwide; a testament to the durability and integrity of these same amazing designs and products. The end of de Havilland Canada was definably a true loss for Canadians, as the company had been a large part of our aviation history. Fortunately, there is something currently going on in Western Canada which promises a brighter light on Canada’s Aerospace horizon.

After the certificates changed hands over the subsequent years, on February 24, 2006 Viking Air Ltd. of Victoria, BC purchased the type certificates from Bombardier Aerospace for all the original de Havilland heritage aircraft including the Chipmunk, Beaver, Otter, Twin Otter, Caribou, Buffalo as well as the Dash 7. For Viking, accepting the legacy of the de Havilland type certificates was a dream that took 25 years to come to fruition. To complete the dream, Viking Air made a commitment to develop and build a new facility in Victoria to accommodate, as well as service the needs and requirements of their many and varied clientele. “For years we have identified the fact that we needed new facilities, not only from a manufacturing prospective, but also our aircraft maintenance business” advised David Curtis, President and CEO of Viking Air Limited. “But our business was changing and we couldn’t decide on the type of facility”. David explained further, “We are becoming more of an Aerospace Manufacturing company, so that’s what finally drove us to say, okay, this is the kind of building we need, with flexible space both in height and floor space, you know, no columns, that kind of thing!” The building David is referring to is Colony’s “frameless” style building, the Behlen Corr-Span product. The Corr-Span building is essentially a building with no frame, the completed structure provides an economical and efficient means of clear spanning long distances. The advantage to Viking Air is the ability to place or relocate equipment anywhere inside the building without the limitations imposed by posts or columns. The flexibility of the structure also allows for door or opening placements virtually anywhere in the wall, as there are no interferences with the columns or braced bays so typical of other forms of steel construction.

Brian Inness, Partner, Vic Davies Architect, the Architect’s for the project, agreed with David on the clean interior space. “The biggest advantage is, we do not have any visible structure that we needed to plan or work around” added Brian. “So that has made for a more flexible interior plan and layout options for Viking. When you compare this building to the more typical pre-engineered buildings, with the large main frames that you have to work around, there are no encroachments into the floor space, so it has worked out very well. What’s been built so far is looking good, and I think Viking is going to be very pleased with the space” Brian commented further “a good choice for this type of use.” John Morrison, Vice-President of Finance for Viking Air Limited and a key player in the development of the project, also concurs, “The thing that interested us the most was the clear-span structure and the simplicity of the building. It’s been quite seamless, very quick, or at least prospectively quick, and things are moving along at a good clip.” John continued, “We went through the iterations of whether it should be the Corr-Span product as opposed to a typical Pre-Eng product, so we looked at the two and came to the collective decision that the Corr-Span product would work. Part of the challenge was the size of the facility, it’s a big ass building.” We couldn’t agree more John!

Clear spanning 205 feet and providing 30 feet of clear height without any visible framing, the inside of the structure currently being constructed appears cavernous. Providing such a large clear-span structure often places immense structural demands on the foundations for the building, making them complicated and expensive. The inherent ability of the Corr-Span product to evenly distribute these loads, uniformly, often provides clients like Viking Air with additional cost savings in the foundations and footing design. “The Corr-Span product suited the site conditions the best, in terms of a light weight building, because geo-technically, I do not believe the soil could have withstood a heavy rigid frame building” noted Mark Van Ek, President of Venture Pacific Construction Management, the company acting as Construction Managers for the project. In addition to this, Mark was very pleased with Scott Robinson, Colony’s Project Manager, “Scott is very much on top of everything and I’m really impressed with how he operates his follow-up. He is just a general all around good guy and good at what he does.”

Viking Air Limited, located at the Victoria International Airport, British Columbia, is a first tier original equipment manufacturer specializing in de Havilland aircraft products. Viking brings the collective experience of over 250 employees and 35 years of experience to support de Havilland Canada customers around the world. “We are deep into the project of restarting an aircraft production line; we’ve sold almost 40 aircraft, which will carry us through 2011 from a production perspective” stated David Curtis. “We are going to build a facility that’s more suited to what we need, what our business is.”

For Viking Air, accepting the legacy de Havilland type certificates brings with it tremendous promise, opportunity and responsibility for both the Company as well as the operators, owners and prospective owners of de Havilland products. Colony is very proud to have been associated with Viking Air and to have played a small role in the development of what may very well end up being, history re-written.

View the live webcam at www.colonybuildings.com/webcams.html

FOOTNOTE
Venture Pacific are a Construction Management company, based in Langley, B.C. Mark Van Ek is the President and founder of the company and brings with him twenty years of history in the construction industry. It has been Colony’s experience, that under Mark’s directive, this project has been extremely well organized, planned and well thought out. We have found Venture Pacific to be very professional, extremely well run and efficient, so much so that we felt compelled to add this footnote to the article. You can contact Mark and Venture Pacific at www.venturepacific.ca

© 2008, Colony Management Inc..
www.colonybuildings.com

Viking Air – History Re-Written
Posted by Colony Management on Friday, August 1st, 2008


* Please fill out our Information Request Form or Contact Us directly if you have any questions regarding Colony Management Inc. or our services.