How Airstream riveted its reputation as the world's coolest trailer

Photo Kai Gradert / Unsplash

“While there’s no place like home, you can take it with you,” says the voiceover for an early Airstream commercial.

The iconic American trailer company, founded 90 years ago by Wally Byam is now the subject of a riveting new documentary Alumination which recounts the brand’s incredible history and meets its loyal fans. Narrated by Kate Pierson of the B52’s who also happens to run Kate’s Lazy Desert, an escape for Airstream enthusiasts near Joshua Tree, California, the most inspiring part is the road trip-loving founder Wally Byam himself.

Byam was a lover of the great outdoors, but his wife was rather less keen on nights under canvas and so he designed his first teardrop-shaped camper – the Torpedo Car Cruiser. Initially he published a guide for people to build their own examples, but in 1931 he opened a small factory in Culver City, California to build trailers for sale.

The Airstream Clipper, with its riveted aluminium semi-monocque design inspired by his passion for aircraft, also featured insulated wall and its own water supply. Dry ice provided a somewhat impractical form of air condition for hot nights in the desert.

Photo Airstream Inc

As the business boomed Byam went on a major publicity drive. Literally. In 1951 he embarked on an ambitious journey to Nicaragua with a group of owners. Too ambitious, as it turned out and just 14 of the 63 trailer which began the trip made it to the finish because of treacherous weather and roads.

Throughout the 1950s Byam continued to lead caravans of Airstreams around the world, taking in the whole Canada, much of Mexico and Central America. In 1959 he led 106 owners from Cape Town in South Africa for over 14,000 miles to Cairo, Egypt.

Byam died in 1962, but his legacy was honoured with 1965’s “Around the World Airstream Caravan”. More than 100 trailers journeyed from Singapore to Portugal. The durability and sheer style of Airstream was cemented.

All this and more is documented by fillmaker Eric Briker in Alumination through amazing archive footage and interviews with owners past and present, including Hollywood heartthrob Patrick Dempsey and Pixar genius Jay Ward.

Alumination will debut at the Freep Film Festival in Detroit in September, and will no doubt inspire many more to take to the road in their “silver bullets.”