The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Owner’s Manual is one of those books that anyone with even a passing interest in aviation or cold war history should have on their coffee table. The Blackbird was the fastest, highest flying aircraft in the world that could literally outrun surface-to-air missiles that had been launched to intercept it.
The Haynes manual you see here includes an impressive breakdown on the history of the SR-71 as well as cutaway illustrations and more historical images of the aircraft than I’ve ever seen in one place. The book is meticulously researched and written in an engaging, easy to read style by author and aviation journalist Steve Davies.
Ben Branch has had his work featured on CNN, Popular Mechanics, the official Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with millions of readers around the world and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
The Burly Voyager Back Pack was designed by the team at Burly specifically for motorcycle use, it has a main chassis of heavy duty black Cordura, with leather exterior support panels, thick padded straps with flannel inner sections, and a padded interior with a 15″ laptop compartment. Burly Brand has been in business for over…
The DUKW 6×6 Amphibious Utility Vehicle is typically just referred to as the “Duck” after its official name “DUKW” – a US Military code for its design: “D” means designed in 1942, “U” means utility, “K” means all-wheel drive, and “W” means dual-tandem rear axles. The DUKW 6×6 Amphibious Utility Vehicle The DUKW would become…
Bill Devin is a man who should doubtless be far more famous than he is, he’s credited with being the first person to use toothed belt in a timing belt application, an invention he came up with in order to get a pair of Norton Manx barrels and heads working after attaching them to a two-cylinder Panhard…
The story behind the Kircher Special is both remarkable and familiar, the car was developed and built in the 1950s by an American two-man team who wanted to create a sports racing car that could take on the best coming out of Europe and win. And they succeeded. The Kircher Special started out as many bespoke…
This 1910 Cadillac racer is a brass era roadster that was built with one thing in mind – competition. In 1910 the automotive world was still in its infancy, the first gasoline-powered car had been built by Karl Benz just 25 years earlier, and they still largely resembled horse drawn carriages with missing ponies. This…
This feature documentary titled Trip Through The River Rouge Plant offers a fascinating insight into the world famous Ford factory in Dearborn, Michigan. At the time of its construction the River Rouge Plant was the single largest factory in the world, it was intended for automobile production however the first vehicles produced there were actually Eagle-class…
