A New Spin On Hangar As Hangout

It keeps the rain off your airplane, there's an old sofa next to the workbench and the secondhand fridge keeps the soda cold, so your hangar is a pretty cool place to hang out in, right? Now, imagine you're a billionaire with a few stray millions -- say, $20 million or so -- to spend on your own private hangar in Scottsdale, Ariz. So far, the plans include an exclusive 40-seat restaurant with runway views, a rooftop barbecue area, elevators, space for up to 15 aircraft in two hangars, indoor parking for lots of cars, and high-tech security systems, all on five acres at Scottsdale Airpark. Bennett Dorrance, an heir to the Campbell Soup fortune, is a 5,000-hour pilot. He plans to allow "members" to join his "aviation club," but exactly how that will work -- fees, who can join and how, etc. -- he hasn't said. The Phoenix Business Journal took a tour of the construction site, and reported that the design of the place will be a head-turner, "even for Scottsdale." Watch for this: "The most visual piece of its architecture will be a 108-foot-long sculpture that resembles a paper airplane, installed above one of the hangars."