Great Falls will soon be home to the state’s largest private hangar with the capability to house two 737 aircraft.

Eagle Jet Solutions is building a 40,000 square foot hangar at the Great Falls International Airport and is the first project in a 20-acre aviation park being developed by the Airport Authority.

Development on the site has been planned since the Airport Authority Board approved the first major utility expansion to the site in 2014. There’s still room for two additional large hangar projects and dozens of small private hangars, according to John Faulkner, airport director.

Carson Coryell, president of Eagle Jet, said the company has operated under other names in different capacities and that Eagle Jet is a fairly new company that is a combination of those previous businesses.

The aircraft management company is designed to assist people with buying and selling aircraft, refurbishing aircraft and more. They won’t do aircraft maintenance at the new hangar, Coryell said.

No one else in Great Falls is able to store large aircraft, Coryell said, so their new hangar would open business opportunities in the area.

The front door of the hangar will be 150 feet wide and 45 feet tall to accommodate the 41 foot tail of the 737s.

Eagle Jet chose Great Falls since it’s a central hub for anyone who might not be able to get into a hangar at other airports around the region.

Coryell went high school in Cascade and learned to fly with Civil Air Patrol in Great Falls and has been in civil aviation his entire career.

Coryell said they’re hoping to have the new hangar open next spring and were hoping to poor the concrete floor by week’s end. The concrete floor will be heated, he said, including part of the apron to keep snow and ice away from the hangar door.

The new hangar will also have a full foam suppression system, Coryell said. He said the company and airport worked with the city to run utility lines for the project.

Faulkner said that the end of 2018 will mark the first time the airport has had multiple private hangar pads, with full utility access, ready for immediate development.

Water lines were being installed this week and Faulkner said sewer lines would be installed in about three weeks.

The project has also extended utilities to the hangars that previously existed on the side of the airport property near the Cascade County Adult Detention Center, including Front Range Aviation and Loenbro.

819th RED HORSE, airport partnership creates potential for up to $10 million of development

Last year, the airport partnered with 819th RED HORSE Squadron, which built new taxi lanes and an access road near Front Range Aviation.

They had just finished that project, Faulkner said, when Coryell got in touch about hangar space. The newly installed taxi way wasn’t quite big enough to accommodate a 737 so the airport is currently extending the taxi by 15 feet, Faulkner said.