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.
This formerly classified CIA training film covers techniques used to surveil cars using multiple vehicle-based teams communicating by radio. The quality of the film’s production came as a bit of a surprise, the camera work is excellent but perhaps most surprisingly the soundtrack includes both the Shaft theme song and the Star Trek theme song….
This conversation was conducted by Silodrome contributor Tim Huber with key Harley-Davidson design and engineering personnel Brad Richards (Vice President of Styling and Design) Ben McGinley (EV Design Manager), and Glen Koval (Chief Engineer for LiveWire). Harley-Davidson has developed a distinct and iconic brand and identity over its 115 years of operating. The bikes have…
The Apollo 3500 GT is one of the most remarkable American GT cars of its age, it’s largely unknown by many due to its relative rarity, but this hand-built car showed that the Americans could design a vehicle just as capable as those from Aston Martin, Ferrari, Jaguar, and Maserati. America has a long history…
This all purpose blinker fluid by Dime City Cycles is an absolutely essential item for any home mechanic to have on hand. Startlingly, most motorists don’t even know how to check their blinker fluid levels, let alone top them up correctly. All modern cars (with the exception of BMWs and Porsche Cayennes of course) have…
This is the DeLorean documentary by Pennebaker Hegedus Films, it’s a full-length film about the DeLorean Motor Corporation, the DMC-12, John DeLorean, and the trials and tribulations that the company confronted before the launch of their iconic car. Filmmakers Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker are icons of the direct cinema approach to filmmaking, they typically…
Hanna & Daylon Lantz: 1968 Dodge Dart The Father/Son build is often something we hear about. Personally, this is something we can be empathetic too. The idea of bonding over vintage iron and steel on a warm summer’s day is a story as old as the automobile. It is iconic. But this build in particular…
