 The flying boats did not require any specific infrastructure , although they had to be brought by ship to Ny @-@ Ålesund , where they were assembled . They took off from a manually groomed air strip on snow . For the airship expeditions , a hangar and a mast were needed . Twenty @-@ two carpenters arrived in October 1925 along with supplies on SS <unk> . Materials were transported to the site by railway after a track had been laid to the site from the port . The 35 @-@ meter ( 115 ft ) tall steel mast was completed in December . The wooden hangar was 110 by 34 meters ( 361 by 112 ft ) with a height of 30 meters ( 98 ft ) . It was covered in 10 @,@ 000 square meters ( 110 @,@ 000 sq ft ) of tarp . The hangar was completed on 15 February 1926 . 
