Two Supersonic Aircraft on a Roof - The Sinsheim Technical Museum

A week in Baden-Württemberg, a week is enough time for a few museums. Sinsheim was the first stop - and immediately set the bar very high for everything that followed.

The museum is located directly on the A6, just before Heilbronn, and is unmistakable even from the highway: A Concorde sits on the roof. Next to it, a Tupolev Tu-144. Two supersonic passenger aircraft, side by side. There is no second example of this anywhere in the world - and that’s exactly why Sinsheim has been on my list for a while.

First Impressions: Exactly as Big as Expected

I was aware that Sinsheim is no small museum - I had heard more than once the warning that you could easily spend a whole day there. Over 50,000 m² of exhibition space, packed with vehicles, aircraft, locomotives, racing cars and everything that ever had an engine. So the plan from the start was: set aside the whole day and just see how far you get.

I let myself drift. From vintage cars to steam locomotives, from steam locomotives to Formula 1 cars, from there somehow to the militaria exhibition. Every corner has something that stops you. The famous Blue Flame, the record car that pushed the land speed record to 1,001 km/h in 1970. The Brutus - normally the loudest threat in the room with its 46-liter aircraft engine - was standing there that day without a power plant. Brazzeltag is getting closer, maintenance is underway.

Formula 1 - Legends in a Tight Space

The Formula 1 exhibition is one of those areas where you slow down without noticing it. Car after car, decade after decade - from early front-engine designs to the turbo era of the 80s. You stand in front of a Ferrari or a Brabham and realize how tiny these vehicles actually are. Photos never quite convey that.

What makes the exhibition special: it’s not just about the exhibit, but about the context. Who drove this car, in what race, with what result. For motorsports fans, this is a rabbit hole.

Special Exhibition: The Fascination of Tuning

Currently running until September 2026 is the special exhibition “Fascination Tuning - VW vs. Opel” - a comparison of two cult brands of the German tuning scene, with a focus on VW Golf and Opel Kadett/Astra. From factory-tuned originals to highly modified one-offs, plus insights into tuning culture itself: events, scene personalities, how social media has changed the community. Not for everyone, but anyone who has ever toyed with the idea of lowering a Golf will find themselves represented. I’m now successfully past that age… more or less.

The Roof - And the Experience You Don’t Expect

Eventually you do make it up there. The path to the museum roof leads through a glazed passage from which you can overlook the entire outdoor grounds - and then they stand before you.

The Concorde F-BVFB and the Tupolev Tu-144 are not merely exhibited. Both are fully walkable. You don’t buy an extra ticket, you don’t wait for a guided tour - you just go in.

The inside of the Concorde is a genuine experience: the cabin is tight, almost claustrophobically narrow. Two seats side by side, lower than you’d expect from modern aircraft, the window tiny. You sit down and try to imagine what it was like gliding across the Atlantic here at over 2,000 km/h - in a tube that expanded by up to 25 cm due to friction heat during flight. The cockpit is accessible, the instrument panel still original.

The Tu-144 is a different world altogether. Bigger, boxier, somehow rougher. The Soviet answer to the Concorde, which even beat the Western competitor by two months - and then had a short, tragic history. The difference in build quality between the two aircraft is clearly noticeable. This is not a value judgment, just a time document.

I probably spent an hour on the roof. Strolling across the roof and through the accessible aircraft, taking photos. The view over the outdoor grounds and the surrounding fields makes the whole thing even better.

U-17

The newest highlight of the grounds is the submarine U-17.

48 meters long, just under 500 tons, over 37 years in service with the German Navy - and then it was on the verge of being scrapped. Instead it ended up in Sinsheim. The transport from Kiel via Speyer to Sinsheim was a logistical masterpiece: by tug across the Baltic Sea, on a pontoon through the Rhine and Neckar rivers, finally on a low-loader through narrow town passages - including nighttime full closure of the A6 because the transporter had to travel part of the way as a “ghost vehicle” against the direction of traffic.

According to the Association of German U-boat Operators, the U-17 is the most modern museum submarine in Germany and the only one of its class. And it is walkable.

You climb through the hatch, work your way through the narrow corridors, stand in the torpedo room in front of the eight torpedo tubes and can look at the Tu-144 through the periscope. What strikes you most: the sheer tightness. No privacy, no escape, no personal space - in the tightest quarters with the entire crew, for days, underwater. The fact that the museum even plays a simulated alarm makes it even more tangible. Suddenly you understand what it meant to serve on such a boat.

The first moment when you turn the corner around the building and simply see this colossus lying in the parking lot has something slightly surreal about it. The entrance to the interior is found after exiting the Tu-144 from the roof. So fitting to go high and then deep down.

The Outdoor Grounds - Tank Garden

What many don’t know: The Sinsheim Technical Museum has extensive outdoor grounds with exhibits that simply don’t fit in the halls because of their sheer size. One section of this is the Tank Garden - directly on the highway, a display of heavy military vehicles in the open air. Tanks, artillery, military equipment from various eras, close together. Nothing is accessible inside, but that’s not necessary either - the dimensions of the vehicles speak for themselves. If you haven’t had enough of the subject inside: In the museum itself stand two Panzerkampfwagen V “Panther” tanks - a fully preserved specimen with a rotating turret, next to it the wreck of a 1944 specimen lost in Ukraine.

The outdoor grounds are worth a separate tour - not just as a passageway to the roof. When I arrived, I spent almost an hour there alone.

IMAX: The Transport as Film

In the IMAX, the museum has produced its own documentary about the transport of the U-17. It’s not a dry industrial film, but an emotionally well-made documentary that shows the enormous logistical effort but also doesn’t forget the human aspect: the former crew members who accompanied the boat, the volunteers whose donations made the transport possible in the first place. Impressive work - in front of and behind the camera.

If you’re already here anyway: The IMAX screening is included in the combination ticket with the museum and is worth it.

Practical Information

Plan time. The museum itself gives three to four hours as a guideline - for tech enthusiasts, a whole day is more realistic.

Combination ticket with Speyer. If you’re planning to visit the Technik Museum Speyer as well, you should check out the 2-day package - both museums belong together and a combined ticket is worthwhile. The museums don’t need to be visited on consecutive days.

Address	Museumsplatz 1, 74889 Sinsheim
Opening Hours	Daily 9-18, Sat/Sun/Holidays 9-19
Admission	Current prices on the website
Website	sinsheim.technik-museum.de

Conclusion

Sinsheim is one of those museums where you understand why some people go there multiple times a year. The Concorde and Tu-144 alone would be worth a visit - the fact that the rest of the collection is equally densely packed makes for a day where you can hardly believe at the end what you’ve all seen.

The step counter at the end of the day: nearly 15,000 steps. For a museum.

For me, that was just the beginning of the week. Tomorrow it’s on to Speyer - and the technical museum there still has the Space Shuttle Buran, the U-9 and the Antonov An-22 in store.