By Jim Bell, EAA 543641, EAA Chapter 63, Lyncrest, Manitoba
Speyer and Sinsheim are small cities in southern Germany. Speyer has a population of about 50,000 and Sinsheim about 37,000. Each are typical German towns, with plenty of lovely cathedrals and other older buildings, parks, and other attractions for visitors. Speyer is on the Rhine, and both are an easy one-hour drive along the Autobahn from the Frankfurt Airport.
I confess, though, that I didn’t visit any of those lovely cathedrals and parks. I didn’t even have a beer. Instead, I had a single destination in each town: the Technik Museum Sinsheim and the Technik Museum Speyer. Each of these museums is dedicated to technology of all kinds, including boats, automobiles, electronics, armoured vehicles, space technology, and of course, aviation. The museums are related, but their collections have a slightly different focus — Sinsheim has a large collection of race cars, while Speyer has more motorcycles and experimental cars, for example. Both museums have an ex-German Navy Type 206 submarine, used in the 1970s and ‘80s, that you can walk through. There is a lot to see for any fan of technology.
But I didn’t go to either location to look at trains or farm equipment. They each have substantial collections of airplanes, helicopters, and space tech. They have large display — let’s call them hangars, although aircraft are a relatively small portion of the contents — hangars to house the majority of their collections, as well as many aircraft displayed outdoors. You may have seen the photos of impossibly large airplanes, like a Concorde, and even a 747, mounted on stilts on the roof of the hangars. There are many more besides, including the only Tupolev Tu-144 “Concordeski” in the west (Sinsheim), and an Antonov An-22 Antei (Speyer). Most of these aircraft can be entered (and are well protected with sheets of plexiglass). The 747, an ex-Lufthansa 747-200, has many interior panels removed, and you can see the stripped-out cargo compartment, the galleys, and even walk out on the wing for a view you are not going to get anywhere else.
Another unique aircraft is a Soviet Buran space shuttle at Speyer. It never went into space; instead, it was fitted with jet engines and used for atmospheric flight testing for the Buran’s return to Earth. It is surprisingly large. You can walk up a set of stairs, a lot of stairs, to look in the cargo bay and the cockpit. If you’re looking for Canadian content, there is a Canadair Sabre in Speyer, painted as a Golden Hawks aircraft, hanging from the ceiling, and an early Canadair CL-215 water bomber, mounted on stilts at Sinsheim, which you can enter. There are large numbers of fighter aircraft, both western and Warsaw Pact. Thanks to re-unification with East Germany, Soviet Bloc aircraft are well represented at both museums.
Each museum is worth a full day. Since the museums are related, you can buy a package that includes a day pass for each museum, which don’t have to be used on consecutive days, and includes an IMAX film — oh, yeah, each museum has an IMAX theatre with films playing through the day. You can even get a package with a hotel included. Parking is inexpensive, and admission, €30 for adults (about $48 Canadian dollars), feels like a bargain.