Wally Byam was a country boy from Oregon, but by the 1920s, the Stanford grad was living working in the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles. He yearned to spend the weekend camping rough in the great outdoors. His wife did not.
Eager for a compromise, Byam built an elevated platform on the chassis of a Ford Model T. Then he put a tent on it and hooked it to their car. The curious contraption was an arrangement that his wife could accept.
And it got Byam thinking about how to make an even better camping experience. For the next iteration, Byam built a trailer out of plywood. Shaped like a teardrop, it was much more comfortable than a tent and even had a cookstove. When they hooked it to their Dodge, they attracted a lot of attention, according to Smithsonian magazine.
He didn't know it then, but he had basically invented the road trip.
By 1931, Byam had founded a company to build his "Airstream" trailers, so named because they rode as smoothly as a stream of air — a marketing tactic that capitalized on America's burgeoning love for cars.
In 1936, Airstream had switched from plywood to aluminum, which is lightweight, resistant to corrosion, and offered a trademark sleek look. Airplanes then flew at the bleeding edge of technology, and the Airstream was billed as a sort of plane without wings. More features, including working toilets, were added over the years. By the 1950s, Airstream had developed a following of enthusiastic caravaners who shipped their Airstreams across oceans to travel to the Pyramids of Giza and all over Europe.
Along the way, the company also launched some duds, like the Airstream funeral coach, which was intended to replace the hearse and to allow families to ride with the deceased to their final resting place. Mourners balked and the funeral coach went to an early grave. Still, Airstream ranks the most iconic brands and their trailers these days can easily cost six figures. Today the Airstream RVs are made in Ohio and are a division of Thor Industries.
