The USS Shenandoah was the first of the great American airships, it was closely based on the German Zeppelin bomber L-49, built just after WWI and still viewed as one of the most important dirigibles of the era. With a gross weight of 36 tons, a total length of 68ft, a cruising speed of 70mph and a range of over 5000 miles, the Shenandoah was the first airship to cross the continental USA, the first to launch an aircraft and the first to dock with a ship at sea (the USS Patoka, seen above).
Sadly the Shenandoah’s life was cut short when it was caught in a severe storm (a squall line), it was caught in a violent updraft that carried it far higher than the upper pressure limits of its helium bags. It was torn apart in the extreme turbulence and crashed in multiple parts in farmland near Caldwell, Ohio – killing 14 crew members.
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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.
VAER Watches was founded by Ryan Torres and Reagan Cook in the USA to build watches that could be worn anywhere – from the office to the Ozarks and everywhere in between. The company assembles all of their watches in the United States using Swiss Quartz movements to ensure both excellent reliability and an affordable…
The Craft & Lore Port Wallet was developed to be a minimalist wallet you can carry everyday for the rest of your life. Each wallet is made from world-famous Horween Chromexcel leather using hand tools by the committed team behind Craft & Lore in their workshop in Coeur d’Alene, North Idaho. The triple-fold design of…
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….
The original Dukes of Hazzard TV series and the ensuing movies have become pop culture icons, they’ve aired around the globe giving the world a look at the American South, and I’m still not sure if the most popular character is Daisy Duke or the car you see here – General Lee. The Dukes of…
This Dodge 426 Hemi V8 was constructed by the factory back in the late 1960s as a cutaway display engine for the car show circuit. Display engines like this require an enormous amount of work to get right, carefully pre-planned sections need to be expertly cut, milled, and polished in order to expose the internal…
D3O (pronounced “dee three oh”) is a modern viscoelastic body armor used by the armed forces, world class athletes, motorcyclists, snowboarders, and many others who need to protect themselves from impact injury whilst still remaining as flexible as possible. Long story short, D3O is soft to the touch, squidgy is probably the best word, but…
