Camping Trade World – Issue 01

AIRSTREAM COMPANY PROFILE
YEARS OF A TRUE CAMPING ICON
From a humble trailer factory in Culver City, California to an iconic
outline that is instantly recognisable to campers all over the world
some 90 years later – this is the story of Airstream.
W
■hen Wally Byam first
opened his small trailer
factory in Culver City,
just west of Los Angeles in
California in 1931, he probably
never envisaged just what
was in store for the brand he
created almost 100 years later.
Airstream has become an iconic
caravan and trailer brand that
almost transcends the industry
itself, being recognisable not
just to campers, but to those
outside the pastime too. Just
how did it happen?
Airstream’s starting point
in the 1930s coincided with a
boom in trailers and caravans in
the United States, but it already
stood out thanks to its rivetted
aluminium design. There were
an estimated 400 manufactures
of this kind in 1937, but
financial trouble and the Second
World War meant that pretty
much only Airstream survived.
Aluminium was hard to come
by in the war, so production
had to take a hiatus until the
war ended and Wally persuaded
the management at Curtis
Wright Industries, where he was
working, to produce a range of
Clipper trailers. Shortly after
Wally left and began making
the trailers again of his own
bat, with the Airstream Liner
coming into the world.
Throughout the history of the
Airstream brand, it has been
Photos: Airstream and imre
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