Guided tour around the Buran - the Soviet Space Shuttle Orbiter

Join me in a guided tour around the Soviet Buran class spaceplane orbiter on display at Technic Museum Speyer in Germany. Includes footage inside the cargo bay and cockpit.

There are two Technik Museums 30 minutes from each other (I assumed they were the same until a few weeks beforehand).

Other similar videos:

#airplane #plane #plane

0:00 introduction
0:30 background
0:50 nose
1:20 ejector seats
1:50 landing gear and heat resistant material
2:18 double delta wing
3:16 rear section and turbofans
5:11 inside rear section
6:20 elevons
7:20 cargo bay and cockpit

[PaulStewartAviation]

Correction: I should have explained myself better. The American Space Shuttle Orbitor initially had ejector seats but they were removed with the idea being similar to what I said in that they wouldn't have been especially useful anyway.

[AbbyNormL]

One thing that caught my eye was the exposed wire bundles running around the inside of the orbiter. I am a retired electrician and have spent thousands of hours wiring control panels with wire bundles exactly like that. The technicians that did the wiring did an excellent job. Their work looks extremely professional.

[SJR_Media_Group]

The Soviet Buran flew only once in 1988. It took off, orbited, and landed without crew. The autopilot was very sophisticated and required no crew.

[alexmasraum]

that museum looks insane. really cool to see a bunch of group b cars displayed along with aircraft

[mikeaviator]

First of all thanks a for the great video!:) However as a great enthusiast of Buran and the guy whose relatives were actually working on that program when this exact test vehicle was flying in LII test facility near Zhukovsky town, I couldn't resist to correct you in a few statements:)

1. Turbofan engines.
Original design, as you correctly mentioned, involved 2 turbofan AL-31F engines, that you can see next to the rudder on this vehicle. The other 2 engines were not supposed to be used in space, but only provided the power for test flights, that the vehicle could take off by itself. That's why you can see that the upper 2 engines have the thermal protection and intake shutters, while the other 2 engines don't, having their pylons even blocking the maneuver thrusters, as you can see at 3:22.

However during the test flights it was proven that these engines will only bring unnecessary complexity and they were completely omitted from the actual space vehicles. While Buran 1.01 and 1.02 still had designated places in their frames for these engines, the second production series of Buran 2.01, 2.02, 2.03 didn't even have any space in a frame to accommodate these engines.

2. BTS 002 (the official code of this test vehicle) was never intended for a space flight, therefore it was built with some simplifications:
1) Thermal protection tiles that you see are fake (styrofoam)
3) Front gear has been modified to increase the angle of attack to support the take off. The space flight gear was different.
5) The wing leading edge is made of aluminum instead of carbon-carbon composites.
7) It's missing some equipment for space flights, like life support systems and part of on board computers. The tests it performed were focused on the automatic landing development.

[Hot-Dog-Racing]

Wow! I didn’t even know there was a Buran on display anywhere in the world. Such a cool video!

[pedroborda]

Paul, your videos as a breath of fresh air - simple, sweet, and to the point. Full of information, no pantomime is needed to dress it up. We need more creators like you; simple, honest and dedicated people sharing their their passion with the world just to inform - no seeking of of fame and fortune for fame and fortune's sake. No sprinkles, no sparkles.

Thank you for your dedication and hard work. You're an example more people should follow.

[meanderinoranges]

I never thought I'd see a Miura parked under a Buran. Looks like an incredible museum!

[tnvcxzd]

Looks like a cool museum, I had no idea about it before...its on my list now for sure.

[Viethist]

Hey 🙏 thx I will definitely go and visit Speyer !!! Thx

[Ghghhjm]

Beautiful shuttle, thanks for your video ❤

[stevemcintyre]

Cool stuff. They have a pretty good collection of classic cars and Group B rally cars as well.

[Cavn]

Awesome. Im living 1 hour from Speyer and was Visiting the museum Last week. Sad that i missed your visit there 😅

[ramanpost]

Amazing.... Looks so seen anything like this

[cpchehaibar]

You outdid yourself once again. Amazing tourr!

[chhite]

I watched this orbiter being floated down the Rhine to Speyer when I was stationed in Germany. That center stabilizer below the main "engines" broke off when the crane/hoist holding the rear failed while transferring the orbiter to a smaller barge. My family and I visited Speyer soon after it went on display and the museum was nearly empty when compared to the latest video.

[fabiodorialeal]

I've been there back in 2014 and got really impressed about what a big RC model the Buran looks like. Not a surprise that it only went into orbit unmanned. Anyway it's coool!

[DexterSkelter]

Another amazing detailed tour.
Very good job.
Thank you Paul.

[dantunno]

I’m not sure if any one has already mentioned it. A Youtuber called Bald and Bankrupt broke into a hangar about a year ago and took video of the one in Kazakhstan.

[lilkris]

That row of group B cars in an aviation hangar is goals