As much of the U.S. is finally starting to emerge from winter and thoughts of road tripping and starry nights return, pause and enjoy a look back in time, courtesy of one of the most iconic names in the RV industry, Airstream.
An avid camper who loved the outdoors, Airstream founder Wally Byam’s first travel trailer experiment in the late 1920s combined a tent-like contraption with a Model T chassis. It wasn’t long before he began improving the design, and the result became what is now recognized as the first true Airstream travel trailer.
After graduating from Stanford University in 1921, Airstream founder Wally Byam used his experience on the school newspaper to enter into the world of advertising and journalism. By the late 1920s, Wally’s company, the Byam Publishing Co., owned several magazines. Around that same time, Wally met and married his first wife Marion James. The couple went camping regularly, but Marion did not enjoy sleeping on the ground in a tent.
In 1929, Wally got the idea to build a travel trailer that Marion could enjoy camping in. He started with a Model T chassis with a tent contraption on top. However, this proved to be tedious to put together onsite, and it did not provide much protection from the elements. Wally went back to the drawing board and designed a tear-drop shaped structure with sleeping space, a stove and an ice chest. Wally and Marion took the trailer on a camping trip and loved it as much as their fellow travelers did. A few of Wally’s neighbors even commissioned him to build one for them.
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