Technik Museum Speyer

There are museums where aircraft stand behind barrier tape. And then there is Speyer. Here you climb into a Boeing 747 mounted about 20 meters above the ground in flight attitude, walk through the cabin into the cargo hold and then step out onto the wing. A few steps further stands the enormous Antonov An-22, and in the space hall the Buran OK-GLI waits, a one-off piece of Soviet spaceflight. The Technik Museum Speyer is not a classic aviation museum – but for plane spotters it is one of the most rewarding destinations in Germany.

A museum on historic industrial grounds

The Technik Museum Speyer opened on April 11, 1991. Behind it is the same association that already runs the Technik Museum Sinsheim. For its second location it chose a site on the edge of Speyer with a long aviation history.

The heart of that history is the Liller Halle. It was built in 1913 in Lesquin near Lille for a French company. In World War I, German troops dismantled it and rebuilt it in Speyer, where it served the Pfalz aircraft works. The company had been founded in 1913 and built aircraft on the site until the end of the war. After that the users changed: French occupation, aircraft construction and overhaul again from 1937, French military after 1945. According to the museum, military use ended for good in 1984.

When the museum association bought the hall in 1990, it was in poor condition. According to the museum, the renovation involved hauling away 100 containers of rubble, installing 1,500 panes of glass and applying 26 tons of paint. Today the roughly 8,000-square-meter, five-aisle hall of iron, steel and brick is heritage-listed. It is an exhibit in itself and houses, among other things, the collection of mechanical musical instruments.

Since opening, the museum has grown continuously. In 1997 the IMAX DOME was added, in 1999 the An-22, in 2002 the jumbo, and in 2008 the space hall with the Buran. According to Wikipedia, the complex today covers about 25,000 square meters of hall space and roughly 100,000 square meters of outdoor grounds. Other sources give slightly different figures – what matters to you: an afternoon is hardly enough.

The jumbo on stilts

The Boeing 747 is the image most spotters associate with Speyer. The aircraft was built in 1978 and flew with Lufthansa. In common reference works it is listed as a 747-200 with the registration D-ABYM. In 2002 Lufthansa handed the retired jumbo over to the museum.

The journey to Speyer was a small logistics project. A 747 is too big to move overland in one piece. According to the museum, part of the route was still flown, from Frankfurt to Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden. The aircraft was then taken apart: wings and other components traveled on low-loaders, and the roughly 70-meter fuselage crossed the Rhine on a special pontoon. From the harbor it went the last stretch overland to the museum, accompanied by many onlookers. In Speyer the jumbo was reassembled and lifted onto a steel frame.

What makes it special is that you can walk through it:

• The interior can be walked through completely, according to the museum. A tour through an early-generation jumbo is an exciting comparison to the modern 747-8.
• The cargo hold is open as well. According to the museum, that is rare among preserved jumbos.
• The left wing is open to step onto. It is about 20 meters up and offers a panorama over the grounds.

Antonov An-22: the landing Speyer still talks about

Besides the jumbo, the Antonov An-22 is the second big aviation highlight. The Soviet transport aircraft is considered one of the largest propeller-driven aircraft in the world. Four NK-12 turboprop engines each drive contra-rotating propellers, and the twin vertical stabilizer makes the silhouette unmistakable.

The arrival was especially spectacular. On December 29, 1999, the An-22 landed at Speyer airfield – a very short runway for an aircraft this size. According to the museum, the crew needed only a few practice approaches and put the aircraft down precisely while thousands of people watched. To make this work, according to Wikipedia, a lot was prepared beforehand: trees in the approach path were cut back, the fence at the end of the runway was removed and grass areas were reinforced with metal plates.

The comparison with other giants from Antonov is interesting. The An-124 and the now-destroyed An-225 later relied on jet engines. The An-22 stands for the time before, when heavy loads were still moved by giant propellers. For context on how sizes have developed over the decades, see the article on the largest aircraft in the world.

More aircraft on the grounds

According to the museum, the aircraft exhibition includes 65 exhibits. What stands where can change – the following overview gives examples, not a complete list.

The Transall C-160 deserves a closer look: the German-French transport flew with the German Air Force for decades and is the European counterpart to the C-130 Hercules. With the Ju 52, it’s worth comparing it with today’s regional aircraft like the ATR 72-600: almost a century of development lies between the corrugated-skin trimotor and the modern turboprop.

The Dassault Mercure, which Wikipedia lists in the collection, is a genuine rarity – ask on site whether it is currently on display. The French short-haul jet was built in only very small numbers and at first glance looks similar to a Boeing 737. If you want to reliably tell Airbus and Boeing apart, relatives like this are especially good practice – the guide Recognizing aircraft types helps with that.

Space hall and Buran OK-GLI

Since October 2008, a modern space hall has complemented the historic Liller Halle. According to the museum, the “Apollo and Beyond” exhibition shows over 700 exhibits on more than 5,000 square meters – from the beginnings of crewed spaceflight to the International Space Station. Since 2013, the Apollo moon missions have been a focus of their own. On display are, among other things, the landing capsule of Soyuz TM-19 and an original piece of moon rock whose age the museum gives as 3.34 billion years.

The centerpiece is the Buran OK-GLI. The prototype from the Soviet space shuttle program was built for flight testing and made 25 test flights according to the museum. It was never in space – the program’s only orbital flight in 1988 was made by another example. After years at other locations, OK-GLI came by ship from Bahrain via Rotterdam and then up the Rhine to Speyer, arriving there on April 11, 2008.

You can view the Buran from the outside and, according to the museum, also take a look inside. At 36 meters long, 16 meters high and roughly 80 tons, it is much smaller than the aircraft outside – but looks all the more imposing in the hall.

Photography at the Technik Museum Speyer

Good news for photographers: according to the museum, photos and videos for private purposes are allowed without restriction. Tripods and lights are also permitted as long as you don’t disturb other visitors. You may publish private pictures on your website and on social media. For commercial use you need prior approval from the press office.

Photographically, Speyer works differently from an indoor hall like the Flugwerft Schleißheim: the big aircraft stand outdoors. That means you work with sun position, clouds and backlight, as at an airport.

Getting there, opening hours and overnight stays

The museum is located at Am Technik Museum 1 in 67346 Speyer. According to the museum, it is open 365 days a year, Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., on weekends and public holidays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Hours may differ around Christmas and New Year. We deliberately don’t list admission prices here because they change.

• By train and bus: to Speyer Hauptbahnhof (main station), then bus line 561 to “Speyer, Technik-Museum.”
• By car: via the A61. The museum currently recommends the Hockenheim exit because the Speyer exit is closed for construction. Museum parking is paid, but the first 30 minutes after entry are free.
• By RV: RVs and caravans park in designated areas, and overnight stays are in the adjoining RV park.
• Hotel: There is a hotel right at the grounds, handy for a two-day visit.

On accessibility: according to the museum, the grounds, ticket counters and restaurants are accessible, and most exhibition areas can be reached via ramps or elevators. Large exhibits such as the aircraft and some galleries, however, are not wheelchair accessible – that applies to the jumbo too.

The airfield next door

Immediately south of the museum lies Speyer airfield (ICAO: EDRY). Its asphalt runway was extended to roughly 1,680 meters in 2011 – this very runway was still shorter in 1999 when the An-22 touched down there. Today the field is used by general aviation, business jets and corporate traffic.

For spotters that means: between two rounds of the museum, it can be worth a look at the field. You see piston aircraft, turboprops and occasionally a business jet. What to keep in mind is explained in the articles on business jet spotting and the question Is plane spotting allowed?. Operational areas are off limits; you photograph from publicly accessible areas.

Combining it: museum and live traffic

Speyer lies in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region and thus within reach of several major airports. A sensible plan for a weekend: one day at the museum, one day at a commercial airport.

• At Frankfurt Airport, you regularly see widebody jets from the Zeppelinheim viewing platform – including the Lufthansa 747-8 and freighters of Lufthansa Cargo. The direct comparison with the Speyer classic jumbo is appealing.
• At Stuttgart Airport, the observation deck offers a relaxed introduction, especially for families.

Other aviation museums can also be linked into a road trip. The Flugausstellung Hermeskeil is also in Rhineland-Palatinate, the Dornier Museum Friedrichshafen is on Lake Constance and the Flugwerft Schleißheim is near Munich.

For families, Speyer is a stroke of luck, by the way: kids can climb into aircraft, the submarine and ships, and the adults still get their money’s worth. More ideas for outings with kids are in the article Plane spotting with kids.

Conclusion

The Technik Museum Speyer is not a quiet place for registration hunters but a destination for experiences. A jumbo you walk through all the way to the cargo hold and whose wing you stand on is a rarity in Germany. The An-22 with its spectacular landing of 1999 and the Buran prototype in the space hall make the visit complete for aviation fans. Add the Liller Halle, a piece of genuine aircraft-building history: the Pfalz aircraft works built here until 1918.

Plan a whole day, watch the weather and light, and expect that not every exhibit always stands in the same place. And if you want to see live traffic afterward, Frankfurt and Stuttgart are within reach.