Meet the original Airstream American outdoor lovers are no stranger to aluminum trailers; the iconic ?silver bullet? Airstream trailers can be found everywhere from campsites to hipster vacation rentals. But few are familiar with the Bowlus Road Chief, an aluminum travel trailer first designed and built by engineer Hawley Bowlus in 1934.
Bowlus?known for sailplanes, gliders, and working on the early development of the Learjet?used the aerodynamic principles from aircraft and race cars to design a luxury travel trailer. Inspired by the curving forms and long horizontal lines of the Art Moderne period, the Bowlus Road Chief featured a lightweight design, low center of gravity, and efficient interior spaces. A Bowlus employee, Wally Byam, eventually took these same features and built the first Airstream Clipper in 1936. But whereas only about 80 Bowlus Road Chiefs were produced in the mid-1930s, Airstream went on to become a household name. In 2014, Geneva Long and her father, John, decided to relaunch the Bowlus brand, combining a love for their own vintage Bowlus trailer with an entrepreneurial spirit.
Today, the Bowlus Road Chief is back, available in two models: An On The Road Edition that starts at $137,000 and a Limited Edition Endless Highway model that costs $219,000. Both Road Chiefs are made from sheet aluminum with approximately 5,000 true aircraft rivets and a towing weight that?s 3,000 pounds lighter than similarly sized travel trailers. That means a va...