Airstream is a brand of luxury recreational vehicle

Recreational vehicle

Recreational vehicle or RV is, in North America, the usual term for a Motor vehicle or trailer equipped with living space and amenities found in a home.-Features:...

 manufactured in Jackson Center, Ohio

Jackson Center, Ohio

Jackson Center is a village in Shelby County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,369 at the 2000 census. Since 1952, Jackson Center has been the home of the popular Airstream travel trailers and motor homes.-Geography:...

, USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is currently a division of Thor Industries

Thor Industries

Thor Industries, Inc. is a manufacturer of recreational vehicles and mid-sized commercial buses.-History:Thor Industries, Inc., was founded on August 29, 1980, when Wade F. B. Thompson and Peter B. Orthwein acquired Airstream. The name "Thor" combined the first two letters of each entrepreneur's...

. The company, which now employs fewer than 400, is the oldest in the industry. Airstream trailers are easily recognized for their distinctive rounded aluminum bodies, which originated in the 1930s from designs created by Hawley Bowlus. Bowlus was the chief designer of Charles Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh

Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...

's aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis

Spirit of St. Louis

The Spirit of St. Louis is the custom-built, single engine, single-seat monoplane that was flown solo by Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927, on the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris for which Lindbergh won the $25,000 Orteig Prize.Lindbergh took off in the Spirit from Roosevelt...

.
The company was created by Wally Byam

Wally Byam

Wallace Merle "Wally" Byam, was one of the pioneer manufacturers of the travel trailer. He founded the company, Airstream Inc. From the 1930s until his death in 1962, Byam was a leader in developing both a romance and enthusiasm associated with the automobile and recreational vehicle culture as...

, who began building trailers out of Masonite

Masonite

Masonite is a type of hardboard invented by William H. Mason.-History:Masonite was invented in 1924 in Laurel, Mississippi, by William H. Mason. Mass production started in 1929. In the 1930s and 1940s Masonite was used for many applications including doors, roofing, walls, desktops, and canoes...

 in his backyard in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 during the late 1920s.