There is now conclusive proof that since 1931, Airstream has been hanging around the RV industry.
Recent Posts
Wally Byam wanted Airstream owners to enjoy the world. He wanted them to experience a sense of adventure, freedom, and excitement throughout their lives.
Tags: Throwback Thursday
Wally Byam stood by his Airstream. If you had an automobile that could make it over any road condition, then you could take your Airstream with you. Of course, this was the early days - before four wheel drive and heavy duty utility vehicles.
In planning the first Airstream Caravan in 1951, which traveled through Mexico and Central America, Wally knew the roads were going to be rough but passable. He knew that the Pan American Highway had not been completed and in Southern Mexico, the Caravan had to travel by rail on flat cars to the Guatemalan border. Wally also knew that Managua, Nicaragua was the trail's end. The Pan American Highway is non-existent into Panama.
When least expected, the Caravan crossed primitive and localized bridges where villagers built bridges using practical applied engineering. The above picture shows a plank bridge in Mexico.
Tags: Throwback Thursday
The Airstream caravan is about adventure. It's about experiencing life to its fullest. And it's about family.
Tags: Throwback Thursday
The stars twinkled in the evening sky as a young Wally Byam rolled out his sleeping gear for the night. It had been a warm day, the sheep had settled in and he was satisfied that as adolescent, this met the expectations that his grandfather James Biswell had entrusted to him.
Tags: Throwback Thursday
Sometimes the art of business is difficult to explain. Why did Wally Byam design and work for Curtis Wright at the end of WWII? Why didn’t he start up Airstream? Why did Wally ever go back into manufacturing trailers?
Tags: Throwback Thursday
A Merry Christmas, Season's Greetings, and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.
What is Caravan America?
When Wally Byam became ill, his wife Stella Byam and the Airstream Executives discussed how to honor Wally after his passing.
They came up with the Wally Byam Foundation (1961–1977).
"PURPOSES…to help achieve a greater knowledge of the daily life and cultures and of the history and aspirations of peoples in our own county in all the Americas, and around the world - and thus to enhance international understanding and goodwill…
to further the concept of travel by trailer as a unique and an increasingly rewarding medium for the advancement of such education and communication on a people-to-people, person-to-person basis; and to that end, to encourage improvement in the environment in which such travel takes place, both at home and abroad…"
For fifteen years various programs were carried out by the Foundation. Airstream, General Motors, the Wally Byam Foundation and National Geographic provided for Caravans, and individual tours across the United States.
American diplomats were given the opportunity to familiarize themselves and their families to the greatness of the United States. Larger groups came from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan and the United Nations diplomats.
The question might be, as usually asked, what might Wally think? His pride in the Foundation’s accomplishments might give the sparkle in his eyes that was so familiar to those who knew him.
During this Holiday Season, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Tags: Throwback Thursday
Did the dream of Africa enchant Wally Byam? As a youth did he read Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs or writings by Dr. David Livingstone and Henry M. Stanley? Where Wally’s African aspirations came from were known only to him.
Tags: A Riveted Life, Live Riveted
It is now 2013. Today, how do we envision Africa? For many of us, it's a flight into Nairobi and being met at the airport with a hotel bus that whisks us away for an adventure on the Serengeti Plains.
Tags: A Riveted Life, Live Riveted
It was 1951, and the Airstream Wally Byam Caravan was traveling to Mexico and Central America. The Glassey brothers, friends of Wally assisting him on the Caravan, were driving along the highway in Mexico. They saw a hungry, frightened, lost puppy.
Tags: A Riveted Life, Live Riveted
