Airstream

1966 Airstream Overlander International

Airstream is a brand of recreational vehicle presently manufactured in Jackson Center, Ohio. The company, which employs about 400, is owned by Thor Industries. Airstream trailers are well recognized for their distinctive rounded aluminum bodies, which originated in the 1930s from designs originally created by Harley Bowlus and others. The design cuts down on wind resistance and thus improves gas mileage.

Contents

1 Airstream's Foundings
2 Models
3 Airstreamers
4 Trivia
5 External links

Airstream's Foundings

The company was founded by Wallace "Wally" Byam, who began building trailers in his backyard in Los Angeles during the early 1930s. Byam, a former Bowlus employee, purchased the designs and revised them, initially selling kits to customers wishing to build their own trailers. In 1936 Byam introduced the "Airstream Clipper", which was essentially a prototype of the now familiar rounded-cornered, silver aluminum Airstream trailer. Byam moved his operation to Jackson Center, Ohio, in 1952, where its headquarters still reside.

Models

1977 Airstream travel trailer ad

During the mid-1930s, company founder Wally Byam perfected his skill of combining form and functionality. He incorporated aircraft construction methods to lower wind resistance and improve the trailer's strength while retaining light weight. His designs took on a more aerodynamic look.

On January 17, 1936, the Airstream Trailer Co. introduced the "Clipper". Of more than 300 trailer builders operating in 1936, Airstream was the only one to survive the Depression years. However, during World War II, leisure travel and the materials needed to build trailers became luxuries most could not afford.

Airstream Trailer Co. closed its doors. Byam decided that the best way to help the war effort was to use his experience with aluminum fabrication in the aircraft industry, taking jobs at Lockheed and Curtis Wright for the rest of the war. When World War II ended, the economy boomed, and people's attention once again turned towards leisure travel.

By 1948 the demand for Airstream trailers increased tremendously, with a wide range of models eventually being offered. In July 1952 a new facility in Jackson Center, Ohio, was established to serve the demand for the trailers. By August of that year, the first Ohio-made Airstream rolled off the line, and the California factory was also moved to larger facilities in Santa Fe Springs.

Beginning in the mid-1970s, Airstream also began manufactures a line of "Class A" motorhomes and "Class B" van campers. In 1974 Airstream began manufacturing a Class A motorhome, badged "Argosy". These began as painted aluminum 20- and 24-foot models, and were followed in 1979 by the first of their Classic model motorhomes, with an unpainted aluminum body, much like the trailers they are known for. In actuality, these were modified trailers, mounted on a step van chassis also modified for the motorhome.

Tokyo Smoking wagon built in the style of an Airstream

The motorhomes began as 28-foot models, and in the '80s and '90s, models ranging up to 37 feet were marketed. These classic motorhomes were followed by the production of more traditional-looking fiberglass models in the '90s, with versions of these still being sold today. A recent model, the Skydeck, features bus-like construction and interior stairs leading to a fully appointed deck on the roof.

Airstream, based in Jackson Center, Ohio, is owned by Thor, Inc. and still produces their traditional aluminum-skinned trailers, along with a full line of motorhomes and the recently added Basecamp trailers. The company presently manufactures about 1,500 motorhomes and trailers per year.

Airstreamers

Airstreamers are a group of RVer's who have a community spirit because of their mutual love of Airstream travel trailers built by the Airstream company of Jackson Center, Ohio. In the early 1950s Airstream company founder Wally Byam began leading groups of owners on travels to many portions of the world, where the towed trailers were quite remarkable. Photos taken of the trailers in front of many famous tourist sites were common. This promoted a mystique which surrounded Airstreams and persists to this day. The Wally Byam Caravan Club was formed during the 1955 rally in Kentville, Nova Scotia, Canada. On August 17, 2005, a commemorative plaque was dedicated on the site. Later, the word "International" was added to the club name, resulting in the acronym "WBCCI". Club members join together for one large International Rally each summer (which by club rules always includes the dates of July 1 and July 4), and hundreds of smaller local rallies. With the boom of RV ownership since 2001, Airstreams are more popular than ever, and restoration of older models is a passion shared by many.

Trivia

In 1969, upon their return from the Moon, Neil Armstrong and the crew of Apollo 11 were quarantined in an airtight Airstream trailer, until it could be determined that there was little likelihood of their having brought back "lunar pathogens" with them.

When on the set, Mark Harmon lives in a 24-foot 1972 Airstream he restored himself instead of the 42-foot Star Waggon the other stars have.

In the early '80s, Francis Ford Coppola had a special Airstream trailer commissioned which was subsequently fitted as a mobile film editing suite. It was nicknamed the "Silverfish".

External links

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