Around 1930, a college graduate called Wally Byam was getting involved with magazine publishing. He built his own travel trailer, and successfully published his plans in Popular Mechanics magazine. Following a request from a neighbour, Wally built - and sold - several of his caravans (travel trailers, in the USA) and in 1931 opened a factory in Los Angeles on the back of his successful coachbuilding work - although the first models were quite conventional in style, and not very aerodynamic.

In one of those strange turns of fate, Wally did some marketing work for William Hawley Bowlus, who had a high-profile background in aircraft design. Bowlus’s credits included being chief designer for the Spirit of St. Louis, a famous aluminium monoplane, in which Charles Lindbergh became the first solo flyer to cross the Atlantic non-stop, in 1927. William also had a company building aluminium trailers, using a construction method similar to the new aluminium aircraft designs that were starting to appear. The Bowlus caravans actually looked very much like a section of aircraft fuselage mounted on a chassis! When the Bowlus company folded in 1936, Wally Byam took on a few members of their staff and bought some of the factory equipment. Almost immediately, he started selling a heavily-modified Bowlus caravan - the Airstream Clipper.

The 20ft Clipper of 1936 became the first of the streamlined aluminium trailers, and the company as we know it was born! This picture of a '36 shows how little the basic shape has changed since then! During the period 1938 to 1947, production was interrupted by wartime activities, but got off to a good start with the 1947 models, and the company soon started to expand. The design got constantly refined, until the shape we’re now all familiar with emerged in the early 1950’s. With various refinements, it lasted until 1968, when a new-generation of wide-body Airstreams was launched for the 1969 model-year. Collectors often identify the models by the number of ‘segments’ used in the construction of the curved roof end-panels. 1947 saw the first Liner models fitted with the sought-after ‘thirteen-segment’ construction, which ran through to the end of ’56, when this was replaced by a simpler seven-segment design. This remained in production ’til the ’64 model-year, when a five-segment end-cap took its’ place.   

Model names were linked to overall length. The vast number of different models that were built over the years, and the number of different interior layouts, means that you rarely see two Airstreams which are exactly alike. Some top favourites include the cute 16ft Bubble, built between 1955-58, and the 16ft Bambi (1961-64), while the 19/20ft Globetrotters, sold between 1962-1968, give more internal space with similar compact outside dimensions. Other models sold in significant numbers include the 26ft Overlander, 24ft Tradewind, and 22ft Safari and Flying Cloud.

 It’s no great coincidence that Airstream caravans work so well and last so long. Wally Byam was a very enthusiastic camper himself, and travelled extensively in his company’s products to find out how well they performed in real-life situations. He often found himself in the middle of difficult and gruelling conditions. Large groups of Airstream owners - and their trailers - travelled with Wally to many different parts of the globe, and the ‘Caravans’ - as the group adventures became known - went as far afield as India, Africa, South America and Russia, as well as most parts of Europe. He also formed the Wally Byam Caravan Club International - still active to this day, with tens of thousands of members, past and present.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON BUYING AIRSTREAMS, READ OUR BUYERS' GUIDE IN
AMERICAN CAR WORLD MAGAZINE (AUGUST 2008 EDITION) 

Click on READ MORE button and scroll down to see full list of classic Airstream models.