Hangar 10 fleet and facilities at Heringsdorf find new custodian

The Hangar 10 collection at Heringsdorf airfield on the north German island of Usedom in the Baltic Sea has been sold via Swiss-based vintage aircraft and warbird broker Boschung Global to Karl F. Grimminger already one of mainland Europe’s leading historic aeroplane operators. He will keep it open at its existing Heringsdorf location, complementing his Luftraum Süd facility at Aalen-Elchingen.

Hangar 10 had been built up by businessman Volker Schülke, becoming renowned for its unique flying fleet of Second World War fighters from Germany, the Soviet Union, the UK and the USA. Especially notable were the Luftwaffe types, with a Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6, G-12 (most often flown with a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine) and G-14, and a Flug Werk FW 190 A-8/N all on the airworthy strength, and a Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3a under restoration.

Following the tragic loss of Volker Schülke in a flying accident during 2020, responsibility for running Hangar 10 passed to Arite Schülke. She realised it would be too much to take on, and contacted Boschung Global with a view to finding a new custodian for the collection and its home. In a statement, Arite said, “Hangar 10 is a project that is close to my heart. It has played a very important role for me and in the life of my entire family for many years. For me, however, it is now time to end this chapter in order to move on.”

Boschung Global’s news release says, “the goal was to sell the collection as a single package — not only the aircraft, but the museum, hangars and associated facilities. The collection was not to be sold piecemeal and dispersed across the world if at all possible”. The search took six months, with interest from potential buyers around the world, but Munich-based entrepreneur Karl Grimminger has now completed the acquisition. “It is very important to me to keep the German collection together as a whole”, commented Grimminger. Apart from the Bf 109s and FW 190, other types in the fleet include a Bücker Bü 131 Jungmann and Bü 133 Jungmeister, a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch and a Messerschmitt Bf 108. He is considering changing the name of the collection at Heringsdorf to Luftraum Nord (meaning Airspace North), to match Luftraum Süd at Aalen, east of Stuttgart. There he keeps a wide array of historic aircraft including Hawker Hurricane XII ‘AG244’/G-CBOE and Beech AT-11 Kansan 42-37620/N15KK.

Arite Schülke said, “It makes me happy that in Karl Grimminger an investor was found who appreciates the achievement behind the collection and the hangar and gives the ‘dream’ the opportunity to live on”. Paul Boschung of Boschung Global added, “This mandate was extremely special, challenging us to find a new way to preserve this once-in-a-lifetime collection which features a treasure-trove of rare German aircraft.”