William Hawley Bowlus

William Hawley Bowlus was an American designer, engineer and builder of aircraft and recreational vehicles in the 1930s and 1940s. Today he is most widely known for his creation of the world's first aluminum travel trailer, the Bowlus Road Chief, which Airstream imitated in 1936 to create the Clipper. This followed his prior famed work as the Superintendent of Construction on Charles Lindbergh's aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis. He also designed and constructed the innovative but unsuccessful XCG-16A experimental military glider ordered by the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1943, appearing as XCG-16 in the list of Vincent Burnelli airplanes. In popular culture he is usually referred to as Hawley Bowlus.