Associate
Continuing (and completing for a while...) my ongoing theme of aircraft in museums, a final small selection from the split-site Technik Museum at Speyer and Sinsheim, near Heidelberg.
This is a proper "blokes" museum, with pretty much everything mechanical imaginable; military and civilian aircraft, boats, cars from the early 1900s through F1, assorted trains, military vehicles, a genuine U-boat...the list goes on. There are also some real qwirky bits, like the concert organ section and the museum of models. Very ecelctic, but well worth a couple of days.
Given the proximity of the old East/West divide, the museum has a decent collection of Russian hardware including, for me, two real highlights.
First, OV-GLI, the Buran atmosphetric test article:
The engines at the back of this specific variant allowed the craft to take-off from a standard runway, rather than requiring air-launch like OV-101 Enterprise, the nearest US equivalent. Also different from the US variant, Buran didn't reqire a manned crew, being able to fly under remote control and the rear rocket motors were not required to provide launch thrust as the carrier Energia rocket was amply powerful to launch the vehicle. This should have allowed a greater payload capacity, had the programme not been canned after a single flight.
Payload bay:
Rear instrumentation bay. This is where the rocket motors would normally be installed:
And the rather, erm, agricultural, flightdeck.....
Also on the same site, but closed for repairs the day we visited, a 747-200. Yes, it really is up on stilts and that really is a walkway across the wing..... Even more fun is the Helter Skelter to get back down to ground level....
And back to the Russian theme, an old Antonov An-22:
This is a proper "blokes" museum, with pretty much everything mechanical imaginable; military and civilian aircraft, boats, cars from the early 1900s through F1, assorted trains, military vehicles, a genuine U-boat...the list goes on. There are also some real qwirky bits, like the concert organ section and the museum of models. Very ecelctic, but well worth a couple of days.
Given the proximity of the old East/West divide, the museum has a decent collection of Russian hardware including, for me, two real highlights.
First, OV-GLI, the Buran atmosphetric test article:
The engines at the back of this specific variant allowed the craft to take-off from a standard runway, rather than requiring air-launch like OV-101 Enterprise, the nearest US equivalent. Also different from the US variant, Buran didn't reqire a manned crew, being able to fly under remote control and the rear rocket motors were not required to provide launch thrust as the carrier Energia rocket was amply powerful to launch the vehicle. This should have allowed a greater payload capacity, had the programme not been canned after a single flight.
Payload bay:
Rear instrumentation bay. This is where the rocket motors would normally be installed:
And the rather, erm, agricultural, flightdeck.....
Also on the same site, but closed for repairs the day we visited, a 747-200. Yes, it really is up on stilts and that really is a walkway across the wing..... Even more fun is the Helter Skelter to get back down to ground level....
And back to the Russian theme, an old Antonov An-22:
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