June 15, 2023 - Germany
Munich: German Technology Museum

 

 

This morning we walked over to the Deutsches Museum, which is geared towards Science & Technology.  It's located on an island in the Isar River.   Actually, most of the museum was geared towards aviation.  Not a problem!

Munich has a dedicated Aviation Museum but it is out of town, on the way in from the airport.  We didn't have time to go to that.  There is also a Transportation Museum which we didn't go to.
   
Crossing the Isar River to the Deutsches Museum.
   
 
   

The museum was supposed to have a broad range of science and technology exhibits but most of what we saw was aviation-related.  The museum is undergoing a renovation  -- the first of two new wings opened in July 2022 with fully redesigned exhibits -- so maybe we just lucked out that the open wing was mostly aviation.

All the information was in both German and English which was great for us.
   

I started out in the World War II area.  The first airplane I checked out was this Messerschmidt Bf-109, the mainstay German fighter and one of the most iconic planes of World War II.  The exhibit was well done, with placards, video players and artifacts around the plane.  You could get up close and personal with the plane as well.

This particular Bf109 is the "Emil" or E-model used by the Luftwaffe in the first two years of the war:  1939-41.

The striking thing about the Me-109 is how small it is, especially compared to the big U.S. fighters like the P-51 Mustang, P-47 Thunderbolt and P-38 Lightning.  The 109 was tiny but had a relatively powerful engine, so it was an excellent fighter.

The close-together, splayed landing gear made landing tricking in the 109.  A huge number were lost not in combat but in training and landing accidents.

 
   

Notice the external fuel tank or "drop tank".  Range was a weakness of the 109 as it only had a internal fuel capacity of a little over 100 gallons.

Germany built over 34,000 109s during WWII.
   
This shot of the 109's instrument panel gives you an idea of how tight the cockpit was.
   
An old Daimler-Benz DB 605A-1 V-12 inverted liquid-cooled piston engine (1,455 hp) dug out of the mud from a crashed 109.  Also what looks to be what's left of a main landing gear.
   
A cut-away of a shiny new Daimler-Benz DB 605A.
   
Next was the Me-262, the world's first jet fighter to fly in combat.  One of the great "What-Ifs" of World War II was what if Germany had been able to put significant numbers of Me-262s into operation a year or so earlier than they did.
   
The aircraft had reliability problems because of strategic materials shortages and design compromises with its Junkers Jumo 004 axial-flow turbojet engines.
   

The design of what would become the Me 262 started in April 1939, before World War II. It made its maiden flight on 18 April 1941 with a piston engine, and its first jet-powered flight on 18 July 1942. Progress was delayed by problems with engines, metallurgy, and interference from Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring and Adolf Hitler. The German leader demanded that the Me 262, conceived as a defensive interceptor, be redesigned as ground-attack/bomber aircraft. The aircraft became operational with the Luftwaffe in mid-1944.

The jet engine program was waylaid by a lack of funding, which was primarily due to a prevailing attitude amongst high-ranking officials that the conflict could be won easily with conventional aircraft.[26][27] Among these was Hermann Göring, head of the Luftwaffe, who cut the engine development program to just 35 engineers in February 1940 (the month before the first wooden mock-up was completed).[15] The aeronautical engineer Willy Messerschmitt sought to maintain mass production of the piston-powered, 1935-origin Bf 109 and the projected Me 209.

Major General Adolf Galland had supported Messerschmitt through the early development years, flying the Me 262 himself on 22 April 1943.

By that time, the problems with engine development had slowed production of the aircraft considerably. One particularly acute problem was the lack of an alloy with a melting point high enough to endure the temperatures involved, a problem that had not been adequately resolved by the end of the war.

In his memoirs, Albert Speer, then Minister of Armaments and War Production, claimed Hitler originally had blocked mass production of the Me 262, before agreeing in early 1944. Similar criticisms were voiced by Lieutenant General Adolf Galland.[38][36] Hitler rejected arguments that the aircraft would be more effective as a fighter against the Allied bombers destroying large parts of Germany and wanted it as a bomber for revenge attacks.

By mid-1943, the Jumo 004A engine had passed several 100-hour tests, with a time between overhauls of 50 hours being achieved.[50] However, the Jumo 004A engine proved unsuitable for full-scale production because of its considerable weight and its high utilization of strategic materials (nickel, cobalt, molybdenum), which were in short supply. Consequently, the 004B engine was designed to use a minimum amount of strategic materials. All high heat-resistant metal parts, including the combustion chamber, were changed to mild steel (SAE 1010) and were protected only against oxidation by aluminum coating. The engine represented a design compromise to minimize the use of strategic materials and to simplify manufacture.[50] With the lower-quality steels used in the 004B, the engine required overhaul after just 25 hours for a metallurgical test on the turbine. If it passed the test, the engine was refitted for a further 10 hours of usage, but 35 hours marked the absolute limit for the turbine wheel.[51] Frank Whittle concludes in his final assessment over the two engines: "it was in the quality of high temperature materials that the difference between German and British engines was most marked"[52]
   

Initial operational missions were not flown flown against the Allies until August 1944.  By then air superiority was long gone.

During March 1945, Me 262 fighter units were able, for the first time, to mount large-scale attacks on Allied bomber formations. On 18 March 1945, thirty-seven Me 262s of JG 7 intercepted a force of 1,221 bombers and 632 escorting fighters. They shot down 12 bombers and one fighter for the loss of three Me 262s. Although a 4:1 ratio was exactly what the Luftwaffe would have needed to make an impact on the war, the absolute scale of their success was minor, as it represented only 1% of the attacking force  Too little, too late.

About 1,400 jets were produced, however, less than a hundred Me 262s were in a combat-ready condition at any one time.
   

Ultimately, the Me 262 had little effect on the war because of its late introduction and the small numbers that entered service.
   
Wooden wing spars like those used in the "People's Fighter", the Heinkel He 162.  The 162 was designed to be built quickly.  It was made primarily of wood as metals were in very short supply and prioritised for other aircraft.   Although production lines were set up in 1945 using slave labor and deliveries began, the state of Germany by that time made the effort pointless. Of just less than 1,000 examples on the assembly lines, only about 120 were delivered to the airfields and most of those never flew, usually due to shortages of parts, fuel, and pilots.
   
The tri-motor Junkers Ju-52 or "Aunt Ju", the Luftwaffe's primary military transport.
   
Development of the Ju 52 commenced during 1930.  The aircraft's design incorporated a corrugated duralumin metal skin as a strengthening measure, which was very unusual at the time. The Ju 52's maiden flight was performed on 13 October 1930. It was initially designed with a single engine; however, it was produced in quantity as a trimotor. The primary early production model, the Ju 52/3m, was principally operated as a 17-seat airliner or utility transport aircraft by various civil operators during the 1930s. Following the rise of Nazi Germany, thousands of Ju 52s were procured as the primary military transport of the Luftwaffe.
   
JCockpit of the Aunt Ju.
   
Looking out over the corrugated right wing.
   
One of the more unusual planes of WWII was the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, a rocket-powered point-defense interceptor aircraft.  It was capable of only 7.5 minutes of powered flight.
   
A typical Me 163 tactic was to fly vertically upward through the bombers at 30,000 ft, climb to 35,100–39,400 ft, then dive through the formation again, firing as they went. This approach afforded the pilot two brief chances to fire a few rounds from his cannons before gliding back to his airfield.
   

Only about 370 Komets were completed.  Their track record was somewhat underwhelming, having been credited with the destruction of between nine and 18 Allied aircraft against ten losses.  Aside from the actual combat losses incurred, numerous Me 163 pilots had been killed during testing and training flights.  This high loss rate was, at least partially, a result of the later models' use of rocket propellant, which was not only highly volatile but also corrosive and hazardous to humans.
   
A V-1 "Buzz Bomb", the first cruise missile.
 
The Wehrmacht first launched the V-1s against London on 13 June 1944, one week after (and prompted by) the successful Allied landings in France. At peak, more than one hundred V-1s a day were fired at southeast England, 9,521 in total, decreasing in number as sites were overrun until October 1944, when the last V-1 site in range of Britain was overrun by Allied forces. After this, the Germans directed V-1s at the port of Antwerp and at other targets in Belgium, launching a further 2,448 V-1s. The attacks stopped only a month before the war in Europe ended, when the last launch site in the Low Countries was overrun on 29 March 1945.
   
The V-2 rocket, the first ballistic missile.
   
The Museum had a very well done area on how airplanes are constructed.
 
Well, this wing construction exhibit looks very familiar, I must say!  Aluminum skins and ribs, held together by rivets and clecos.  Can you say, RV?
   
Yes, I know exactly what every one of these tools is used for and have used most of them.  Before building my RV-7, I didn't even know what a cleco was.
   
The airplane construction area is on the left.
   
Ever wondered how those big turbo fan engines are attached to the wing?  You can see how here.
   
Close-up.
   
The fuselage cross-section on the left is the newest carbon-fiber technology.  On the right, the tried and true aluminum.
   
A close-up of the carbon fiber stringers glued to carbon fiber skins.  Simple but elegant.
   
Those aluminum tubes we all ride around in -- this is what the structure underneath the plastic and carpet looks like.
   
A close-up of how the aluminum skins are riveted to the J-stringers.  Also a good look at the aluminum bulkheads.  Not a whole lot different than how my RV fuselage is built.  The airliner is just a lot more substantial.
   
A diorama showing a stage in the construction of a Boeing 747.
   

Fieseler Fi 156 Storch.  Over 2,900 of these versatile, short-landing-and-takeoff (STOL) airplanes were built during WWII.  .
   
The Bunker Bu-131 Jungman was an effective trainer for Germany during WWII.  It  was especially good for aerobatic training.
   

The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, flown by the West German Air Force.  Operating in the poor weather conditions of northwest Europe (unlike the fair weather training conditions at Luke AFB in Arizona) and flying low at high speed over hilly terrain, many accidents were attributed to controlled flight into terrain (CFIT).   A total of 116 pilots were lost in West German F-104 accidents.  One contributing factor to this was the operational assignment of the F-104 in West German service: it was mainly used as a low-level fighter-bomber, as opposed to the original design of a high-speed, high-altitude fighter/interceptor.

Erich Hartmann, the world's top-scoring fighter ace, commanded one of West Germany's first post-war jet-fighter-equipped wings[165] and deemed the F-104 to be an unsafe aircraft with poor handling characteristics for aerial combat.
   
An Extra EA-300L, a famous unlimited aerobatic monoplane, designed in 1987 by Walter Extra, a German aerobatic pilot, and built by Extra Flugzeugbau.  I have seen them fly many times at AirVenture.  The Extra 300 is stressed for ±10 G with one person on board and ±8 G with two.  More than enough for me!
   
The Udet U-12 Flamingo, a 1920's aerobatic sport plane and  trainer.  The U-12 with the registration D-822 belonged to the World War I ace and highly distinguished, internationally renowned aerobatic pilot Ernest Udet.  Embodying the image of a daredevil, he came to represent a certain masculine ideal.  This aircraft is a reproduction, the original was lost when Berlin was bombed in WWII.
   
The only surviving example of a Messserschmidt M-17, Willy Messerschmidt's first powered aircraft, designed in 1925.
   
The Klemm L-25 was a successful German light leisure, sports and training monoplane aircraft, developed in 1928. About 600 were built in Germany between 1929 and 1936.
   
Junkers A50 Junior, the first serial produced all-metal sports aircraft, produced in 1929.
   
A look from above at the Junkers A50.
 
I've seen this airplane recently, at AirVenture.  In 2022, Junkers Aircraft Works began production of a modernized version of the A50. This new A50 features modern avionics, a 100 hp Rotax 912iS engine driving a composite MT-Propeller, and a ballistic parachute. As of May 2023, 27 new A50s have sold in Europe, and plans have been made for WACO Aircraft Corporation to produce aircraft for American customers.
   
Soaring has always been big in Germany so there was a substantial glider exhibition in the museum.
   
Modern gliders are all composite.  This glider shows the underlying composite construction.
   
This interesting exhibit shows German gliders thermaling in chronological order, oldest at top, newest at bottom.
   
One of the gliders I have flown:  this Schleicher Ka-6.  Bruce used to own one and let me fly it.  It flew nice but was the cockpit was too small for me.  I could never get comfortable in it.   Later, my Ka-8 would fly just as well as the Ka-6 but was much roomier and comfortable.
   
This diorama shows a typical glider operation at a grass field somewhere in Bavaria
   
The museum had an excellent engine area.  Those are aircraft engine on the wall, including at far right a rotary engine used in WWI airplanes.  To its left is a big radial.
   
A gigantic piston, connecting rod, and crankshaft from a WWII Battleship.
   
Before the internal combustian engine, there was the steam engine.
   
Upstairs were the space exhibits.  Here is a replica of the Apollo Lunar Rover.
   
A replica of the world's first rocket, built by Robert H. Goddard.  Goddard successfully launched his rocket on March 16, 1926, which ushered in an era of space flight and innovation. This first rocket was liquid-fueled (gasoline and liquid oxygen).  The rocket took 20 seconds to lift off and another 2.5 seconds to achieve a height of 41 feet.  Few would recognize it at the time, but this little engine was a major breakthrough. These experiments suggested that rockets could be made powerful enough to escape Earth and travel into space.  Rockets can function in a vacuum as well as in an atmosphere.  This engine and subsequent experiments sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution were the beginning of modern rocketry and, ultimately, space exploration.  Goddard realized, however, that it would take the more efficient liquid propellants to reach space.  Goddard and his team launched 34 rockets between 1926 and 1941, achieving altitudes as high as 1.6 miles and speeds as fast as 550 mph.
 
Although his work in the field was revolutionary, Goddard received little public support, moral or monetary, for his research and development work.  He was publicly ridiculed by the New York Times in an editorial on January 13, 1920 [demonstrating that the NY Times was then, as now, worthless other than as an effective outlet for left-wing propaganda].  He was a shy person, and rocket research was not considered a suitable pursuit for a physics professor.  The press and other scientists ridiculed his theories of spaceflight. As a result, he became protective of his privacy and his work.
   

The museum had an outstanding exhibit on bridges.

This piece of wood is one of the oak piles from a roman bridge near Mainz.

Julius Caesar and his legionaires built the first bridge (on record) across the Rhine River during the Gallic War in 55 BC and 53 BC. Strategically successful, they are also considered masterpieces of military engineering.

During Caesar's conquest of Gaul it became necessary to secure the eastern border of the new provinces against plundering Germanic tribes. The tribes felt safe on the eastern side of the Rhine, trusting the river as a natural border which protected them from retaliation after their opportunistic raids into the province. Caesar decided to confront them and show support for the Ubians, an allied German tribe across the Rhine.  While he could have crossed the river by boats which the Ubians had offered to provide, Caesar decided to build a bridge to demonstrate Rome's ability to bring the fight at any time to the Germanic tribes.

The construction of this bridge showed that Caesar, and Rome, could go anywhere, if only for a few days. Since he had over 40,000 soldiers at his disposal, they built the first bridge in only 10 days using local lumber.
   
This model depicts the construction of the old bridge over the Seine River near Neuilly (northwest corner of Paris).  Four crucial construction phases can be seen -- from the laying of the bridge's foundation to completion.  The Pont de Neuilly comprised five basket arches and is considered one of the most daring construction of the 18th century.   However, by 1939 it was too narrow for motor traffic and was demolished.
   
The Stone Bridge (Steinerne Brücke) in Regensburg, Germany, is a 12th-century bridge across the Danube linking the Old Town with Stadtamhof. For more than 800 years, until the 1930s, it was the city's only bridge across the river. It is a masterwork of medieval construction and an emblem of the city.
   
The Pont du Gard is an ancient Roman aqueduct bridge built in the first century AD to carry water over 31 miles to the Roman colony of Nemausus (Nîmes).  It crosses the river Gardon near the town of Vers-Pont-du-Gard in southern France. The Pont du Gard is the tallest of all Roman aqueduct bridges, as well as one of the best preserved.  Today it is one of France's most popular tourist attractions,
   

Model of the Rendsburg High Bridge, a railway viaduct on the Neumünster–Flensburg line that also serves as a transporter bridge. The bridge crosses the Kiel Canal at Rendsburg in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.  Notice the suspension ferry crossing the canal, carrying passengers and up to four vehicles.

The bridge was erected between 1911 and 1913.

In order for ships to pass under the railway bridge, a 2.8 mile long ramp loops the railway line up to 138 feet above the canal.
   
This picture of the actual railroad bridge gives a better idea of just how tall it is and its long ramp.
   
Diorama of the Mooserboden Dam being constructed in Austria in 1953.
   
An example of one of the suspension cables used in the Brooklyn Bridge, opened on May 24, 1883 and still in use to this day.  Not sure why an exhibit on the Brooklyn Bridge is in a Munich, Germany museum.
   

Checking out a model railroad exhibit.

Great museum.  As always, not enough time to see everything...
   
 
   
Previous
Home
Next