The future of the Transrapid, which is suspended on a magnetic pad only a few millimetres high, has been uncertain for more than 30 years. The development began in 1971 with a prototype of MBB, which demonstrated the practicability of a rail vehicle with magnetic levitation technology. Shortly afterwards Krauss-Maffei introduced the Transrapid 02, which already reached a top speed of 164 km/h. The exhibit is a Transrapid 04 from 1975, which was donated to the Technik Museum Speyer by the manufacturer Krauss-Maffei. It is an enhancement of the Transrapid 02. During test drives, this prototype achieved a top speed of around 250 km/h.