Airborne Experience

Tinker imagineers designed the Airborne Experience at Hartenstein, which creatively immerses visitors in the Battle of Arnhem (1944) and take them on a coherent journey through harrowing events. Visitors get a first-hand impression, scene by scene.



When boarding a glider plane in England, the benches start rocking. The fuselage creaks and they hear soldiers. After landing, the visitors disembark into the Dutch landing meadows. The operation soon turns into a nightmare, as they witness the fights in the streets of Arnhem with German troops. Finally, they join the soldiers when fleeing back over the Rhine river.



History is brought to life through a state-of-the-art combination of realist decors, authentic footage, and perfectly timed light, sound and smoke effects. Besides, the renewal encompassed new scenographic areas, more cinematic lighting and better articulated human figures. But most noticeable is a completely new AV-approach with a 60-channel sound design and more immersive use of projected media.



The first area employs 10 loudspeakers to create a sensation of planes passing above. Lighting and audio were used to subtly encourage visitors to move to the next area with the room slowly darkening and soldiers’ voices urging their comrades to press forward. Furthermore, lots of different projectors were used to create really subtle effects, like sunlight through trees or the shadows of planes flying over.



Visitors then encounter the most ambitious set design: an Arnhem town square as a battlefield. Large projections depict footage from historic films and war journalists. By synchronising projected explosions with lighting cues and smoke machines, visitors experience a battlefield as they normally only do in films and videogames.



Visitors leave the exhibition through an area where they reflect on what they just experienced when listening to an emotional soundscape of eyewitnesses. Information on the walls show facts about the battle, while crosses overhead symbolise the fallen soldiers.



For the renewed museum exhibition, Tinker also created an impressive film room in which the complex story of the battle is explained in a clear and contemporary way with projection mapping on different walls.