The Buran shuttle
The only Soviet shuttle vehicle displayed outside Russia; it flew once, unmanned, in 1988, and the programme died with the Soviet Union.
Lutz Blohm from Schifferstadt, Germany โ CC BY-SA 2.0 ยท Lutz Blohm from Schifferstadt, Germany โ CC BY-SA 2.0 ยท Lutz Blohm from Schifferstadt, Germany โ CC BY-SA 2.0 ยท Lutz Blohm from Schifferstadt, Germany โ CC BY-SA 2.0
Possible, but rushed and tiring: each deserves three to four hours, with half an hour's drive between them. The combined ticket is valid for two days precisely for that reason โ split them if you can.
Very much so: climbing into the aircraft and submarine and taking the slide are hands-on and popular, and the outdoor areas are large. The one caution is that the submarine passages are extremely tight and can frighten small children or anyone claustrophobic.
Speyer Cathedral is minutes away and worth an hour, and the small old town around it is easy for a walk and lunch. That balances the day between technology and history rather than leaving it all museum.
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The Technik Museum Speyer is the larger twin of Sinsheim, and works on a single idea: do not show the machine behind a rope โ let people inside it. A complete Boeing 747 is raised on pillars at a tilt, reached by stairs, walked through, and exited onto its own wing; anyone who wants to can come down by a long slide. Beside it are a real military submarine cut open so you can squeeze through its interior, a giant Soviet Antonov transport, locomotives, fire engines and heavy machinery. Its greatest holding is the space section: the Soviet space shuttle Buran is displayed here, the only such vehicle on show outside Russia. The Soviet programme was built as an answer to the American shuttle, flew once unmanned in 1988, and ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Around it sit capsules, engines and cosmonaut suits, in one of the largest space collections in Europe. The two museums โ Speyer and Sinsheim โ are run together and sold on a combined ticket valid for two days, about half an hour apart by car. Speyer has one further advantage: the town itself is worth an hour, its UNESCO-listed Romanesque cathedral being among the largest surviving Romanesque churches anywhere, and only minutes from the museum.
The only Soviet shuttle vehicle displayed outside Russia; it flew once, unmanned, in 1988, and the programme died with the Soviet Union.
A whole aircraft raised and tilted, walked through and exited onto the wing โ with a long slide down for anyone who wants it.
A real military submarine you walk through, between pipework and cramped bunks โ it explains life underwater in seconds.
Outside the museum: an eleventh-century UNESCO-listed Romanesque cathedral, among the largest of its kind still standing.
Am Technik Museum 1, 67346 Speyer