The Demolition of the Balloon Inflation Tower

(above is what it looked like in action in 1977 as captured by Stu Harris,
and here's an interior shot with Lloyd Anderson getting a balloon ready.
In 1977 the main floor was one large room, but the back portion was par-
titioned off a few years later, originally to house the hydrogen generator)

When did the construction of the "new station" begin? Perhaps it was with MAPO and the other science facilities on the far side of the runway...or perhaps it was when ARO replaced Clean Air. Or perhaps it was when the first demolition of the main portion of the domed station began, in 1996-97, as the BIT was removed to make way for the new garage arch. What follows is a sequence of photos by Chris Rock (ASA) as the removals got underway.

First, a couple of final interior shots. The top of the spiral stair...

The interior wood paneling (visible in the 1977 interior shot) and insulation has been removed.

One corner of the main room, showing some of the roof framing unbolted

Getting ready to pull the dome

Removing the guy wires

Positioning the sled

Rigging up...

It's loose...

looking up inside

Swinging it away

Down easy

Down easy

On the sled to get hauled off to...(stay tuned)

The next step, getting ready to pull the roof off

It's loose

Coming down....

With the roof off, the inside stuff has been pulled out.

Demolition of the main tower room continues (I think the
foundation in the foreground is for the new cargo building)

A bit later, here's the helium/cargo arch with BIT completely
gone, but before the arch wall is demo'd.

where's the gold from the hydrogen generator?

The end wall was removed before winter,and in 1997-98
the rest of the arch was removed. Here's the beginning of
the process. This NSF photo is from the Wonder Arch people.

Jump to January 2004...here are pieces of the arch sitting
out on the berm. And that hanging piece of plywood is still there.

Remember the radome? Here it is on the berm along
with the extra buildings and fuel tanks (photo
from Scott Smith)

Another January 2004 picture of the helium arch,
sitting on the berm with some other junk--er, aircraft
(that Russian aircraft that flew down in January 2002).
Pieces of the arch were used to extend the old garage
arch to its original design length, more of it will be used
to fill in the arch sections between the old biomed and
power plant arches after the buildings are removed and
these areas become storage. (photo from Seth White)