One of Airstream’s biggest challenges was being bought and sold more than once – among other things. At one time it was owned by Beatrice Foods; not the best corporate culture fit. Thor Industries, who you may know owns a number of RV brands now, was founded with the purchase of Airstream.  But because of a long line of reasons it has survived and is still is, IMO, the finest “tag trailer” if you look at the Classic model.

The most interesting aspect of the Airstream story to me is that Airstream made a 5^th wheel.  But, according to some long-time Airstreamers, in spite of the fact Airstream Land Yacht Harbors (parks) accepted the Airstream Motorhome, some never accepted the 5^th wheel although it looked exactly like an Airstream; at least the first ones did.  That is Airstream lore so to speak.  But maybe the Airstream 5er was way before its time. I wish they had continued building a true Airstream 5^th wheel for a lot of reasons.

The Airstream Motorhome was probably more accepted due to its use by NASA as the both the Apollo Crew Containment vehicle and also as the NASA Transfer Van to move the astronauts to the launch pad. (Wasn’t used in the beginning of the Mercury Program but became the standard later on.)

But because of a long line of reasons it has survived and has a nice following.  There is a huge Airstream dealer just east of the Tampa RV Show if any one might be interested.

We toured the Airstream factory a few years ago when we were researching. Some of those pictures look like ones we could have taken if we had been allowed to take pictures. If we had gone with a towable it would have been an Airstream.