NAS Patuxent River Hush House

Hush House Repair

Swanda Brothers Inc. challenged by The Department of Navy and NAVFAC to upgrade a twenty year old facility to current guidelines and standards. The Secondary Stack, Augmenter, and Exhaust Stack were upgraded to provide acoustical control to withstand 40,000 pounds of trust and heat ratings of up to 1200 degrees. This facility will test fighter jets currently in use and will be one of the testing sites for the next generation X35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Swanda made major modifications to a complex system of acoustical components, the high-temperature thermocouple indicators, and structural steel components. Swanda Brothers also replaced the joint sealants and rope packing, which is a vital key in acoustical control. Swanda Brothers successfully integrating a 20-year-old facility to current standards. This extremely difficult task required the experienced planning of Swanda’s design team. Swanda Brothers completed the task of repairing existing structural components to except new acoustical components without compromising the structural integrity of the facility. A significant part of the demolition had to be performed by Swanda Brothers, Inc. after the General Contractors demolition crew fell behind schedule and did not fully complete the required work. Major repairs had to occur as a result of this. This was one of Swanda Brothers, Inc. more challenging jobs to complete

“Their team spirit with the members of the Hush House staff and flexibility of site tasking, which allowed access to the hanger portion of the jobsite during the installation phase, contributed to the successful completion of active test programs, that returned active flight status to a number of NAS test aircraft.”Thomas Baranoski, Engineering Branch Manager, Naval Air Systems Evaluation Facility.

“This project was executed on a tight schedule.  Recognizing this Mr. Dawson committed his construction team to overtime and weekend work in order to meet the schedule. Mr. Dawson ability to communicate with the customer was demonstrated as he coordinated his work schedules with the work schedule of the owner of the Hush House so that production work by the Government could continue as required during several phases of construction.” Reginald Turknett, NAVFAC Test Cell SME, Naval Facilites Engineering Service Center.