Brian, the owner of Chase Aviation Company—an aircraft acquisition and resale business with nearly 20 years of operation headquartered in Jamestown, New York—knows firsthand how critical reliable hangar doors are to daily operations.
When he purchased a hangar originally built in the 1970s, it didn’t take long to identify the biggest issue on the property: the outdated bifold door system. The existing aircraft hangar door required a full ritual every time it was used. Someone had to find the keys, walk to each end of the 58-foot span, manually release the uplatches, drop the floor bars, and hope the door would seal properly. It rarely did.
Light gaps were visible even in the dark, and during 10-degree Jamestown winters, that meant heat—and money—escaping constantly from the aviation hangar. On windy days, the hangar door wouldn’t open at all, creating both operational delays and serious safety concerns.
Determined to find a better solution, Brian attended AirVenture in Oshkosh and met with multiple hangar door manufacturers. Among all the options, Diamond Doors stood out, not just for build quality, but for a key engineering advantage no other aviation hangar door provider offered: a second motor designed to actively drive the door shut and secure a tight seal.
“That second motor that closes the door shut was really what sold me,” Brian said. “It was the only system I saw that felt truly well thought out.”
The upgrade transformed the entire aircraft hangar experience. With the new bifold hangar door, a single button opens and closes the full 58-foot span. The auto-lock system pulls the door into a complete, weather-tight seal—eliminating light gaps, blocking cold air, and improving energy efficiency.
No more walking the length of the aviation hangar, no more manual latches, no more worrying about safety or performance. Just a high-quality hangar door system that works reliably every time.
At Diamond Doors, customer satisfaction is our measure of success. We’re available by phone toll-free at 866-325-7600 or by email at info@diamonddoors.com. Contact our sales team today to get free pricing on your bifold hangar door.
Video Transcript
Having my own hangar, I love the convenience of it, but as you come back to an old door, it’s like, oh, I got to dig for the keys, I got to go through the two man doors, then I got to go unlock the latches, and then I got to stand there and watch and hope that, you know, my kid or my dog doesn’t come run underneath it, because I don’t know if it’s going to fall. And now we just don’t, we don’t really have to think about that.
So Chase Aviation Company is an aircraft acquisition and resale company. I’ve been in business for almost 20 years now. The headquarters is here in Jamestown, New York. I’ve got a sales guy down in Charlotte, North Carolina, one in Charleston, and then for our management side of the business, I have a pilot down in Melbourne, Florida.
So I purchased the hangar in July of 2025. It was built, I think, originally in the 70s. By the time I got to it, it was definitely something that needed a lot of renovation. After I purchased it and started using it a few times, all that creaking and popping, and there was one time that the wind was blowing at the hangar and the door wouldn’t even go up. And so it quickly became obvious that I needed to spend the money and replace the door. We were going to go to AirVenture anyway, and we go every year. Flew in and just decided to start looking at some of the different options that I had. So I met with every provider that I could find. I was in one of the hangars and diamond doors. They had this beautiful display, and I’m looking at it and like, wow, this is really something. That second motor that closes the door shut was really what sold me on it. I think that’s the only one that I’d seen that was that well thought out. I gave them initial dimensions just kind of off the top of my head, and they came back with a quote, and that was enough to make me go, oh wow, okay, so I can replace the entire door and just do it all right, which is the way I like to do things.
The old door system was a bifold, similar concept, but there was manual mechanisms that you had to physically go over to, and it was like an uplatch, and you had to really pull down on it, and it just didn’t quite work right, and it didn’t form a perfect seal. So when you turned the lights out, you could see these light gaps, and when it’s 10 degrees out, that’s just money literally going out there. And so every time I see that auto lock system suck the door closed, I’m like, I don’t know, there’s just so much satisfaction to not having to go walk, you know, 58 feet to the other end of the hangar, close that one, walk all the way back, put the little drops, those bars down in the floor, and it went from, I got to get the door open, to one button, and just stand back and watch the glory.
