How a Colossal Airship Hangar Became a Colossal Water Park

On the left : a $ 110 million airship hangar , the world ’s expectant freestanding construction , located 40 miles south of Berlin . On the right : that same building seen today : dwelling house to Tropical Islands Resort , a massive water parkland and indoor rainforest . Huh ?

The monumental hangar , measure out 1,181 feet long by 688 ft wide by 351 high gear , was built by Carl von Gablenz , a German entrepreneur who thought that helium dirigible were the future of laborious machine transport . His company , CargoLifter AG , used the hangar to house a paradigm airship capable of carrying 60 tons , but by 2002 they were belly-up and ordered to sell the construction to a Tanjong , a Malaysian companionship . Tanjong was not in the airship concern .

Instead they repurposed the hangar for their Tropical Islands Resort , a massive indoor radical park . They weld the 600 - ton steel threshold shut , replaced its steel skin with 20,000 straight yards of translucent photographic film , and brought along everything they call for to build a totally immersive , entirely false promised land : 600 feet of sandy beach for a fake shoreline , 50,000 tree diagram of some 600 varieties , comprising the world ’s braggart indoor rainforest , and , of grade , a nine - story piddle slide that mail rider shooting down into a 3,000 straight yard swim pond at 44 MPH . Yikes . I think I ’d feel safer on the dirigible . [ Air Space MagviaBoingBoing ]

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