The construction of the hangar with laboratory and research facilities and its equipment is carried out as part of the “AEROSFERA” project. “The airport of things”. The main objective of the project is to provide Kąkolewo Airport with scientific and research infrastructure for conducting research and development work in the fields of air transport, utility operations, logistics, monitoring, surveillance and neutralisation of incidents and disasters.
In March 2023, the construction of a hangar with laboratory and research facilities at Kąkolewo Airport (EPPG) was completed. The facility, located on a plot of land of 1 ha, with a built-up area of 1,820 m², a usable area of 1,932 m² and a volume of almost 23,000 m³, was built using the “design and build” model. In addition to a flight hangar with an area of more than 1,300 m² and a usable height of 10.65 m, it has laboratory, storage, welfare and technical facilities that will allow research, development and experimentation with unmanned aerial vehicles, while a 16 m wide and 5.5 m high triple gantry will allow large unmanned aerial vehicles to be parked, handled and prepared for flight. The project took 15 months to complete, during which a construction design was created, planning permission was obtained, detailed designs were developed, construction work was carried out, and finally the facility was approved for use. This was a period of dynamic price changes due to the pandemic and the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. By the end of 2023, investments were completed for the purchase of specialised equipment for the laboratory facilities, which will create conditions for the design, integration, testing and preparation for the operation of unmanned platforms. The construction of the hangar, laboratory and research facilities and their equipment is being carried out as part of the ‘AEROSFERA. Airport of Things’, co-financed by the WRPO 2014-2020, a special grant from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, financial contributions from economic partners (Aeroclub Poznań, LARS) and PSNC’s own funds.
Antennas for the 5G system, which is currently being integrated, will be installed on the mast and in the hangar. A 1.5 hectare photovoltaic farm with a capacity of 1 MWp will be installed, which, together with a 500 kWh energy storage system, will provide power for the hangar infrastructure, including the planned server room. To meet this demand, the facility’s power supply will be increased to 1.1MW. An extension of the fibre optic infrastructure will also be implemented, the core of which will be the telecommunications room in the hangar, which will be connected to the PSNC fibre optic infrastructure. A server room is planned for commissioning in 2024. Among other things, it will be equipped with an air conditioning infrastructure with a waste heat recovery system that will be used to heat the facility. This will enable the site to generate its own electricity from renewable sources, significantly reducing energy purchase costs.
