Duncan Aviation is kicking off construction in December on a $25 million paint facility at its Lincoln, Nebraska location. Plans call for a 32,500-sq-ft dual-bay hangar with an additional 9,000-sq-ft storage and support area that will connect to the MRO provider’s existing paint facility built in 2012. The project also entails expansion of the ramp on the building’s west side.
Designed and engineered by long-time Duncan Aviation partner Tectonic Management Group, the facility will feature cross-draft bays with updated climate control, as well as upgraded wastewater treatment and added air showers to contain more contaminants. It will further have a small application booth for parts such as flaps and thrust reversers.
Other features include dimmable hangar lighting that provides flexibility for future layouts and the ability to recirculate up to 80% of the heat of the curing processes.
Hausmann Construction will build the facility, and construction is anticipated to be complete by January 2026. Once open, Duncan plans to decommission its Paint Bays 1 and 2, which were built in 1990; that area will be repurposed. However, the 45,000-sq-ft paint facility built a little more than a decade ago will remain in use.
The new facility will accommodate large models such as the Gulfstream G650, Dassault Falcon 10X, and Bombardier Global 7500, as well as provide flexibility for unscheduled and drop-in work such as paint touch-up and registration number changes.
“The driving factor for the hangar build is flexibility, not capacity,” says Doug Bohac, Duncan Aviation enterprise paint manager. “We won’t be painting more aircraft in Lincoln. However, we will be able to offer clients better flexibility, especially those who want detailed, more intricate paint schemes that require more than one paint slot to complete.”
Duncan’s Lincoln facility paints about 105 aircraft each year, with 250 such jobs conducted throughout its facilities, including work at its locations in Battle Creek, Michigan, and Provo, Utah.