Airstream Factory Tour, Jackson Centre, OHIO, A little out of Chronological Order But here it is from our Visit there April 5 - 7,2009

Jackson Centre is a small farming town about an hour North of Dayton, Ohio and two hours south of Toledo off Interstate 75. As you can see from the welcome sign it is Airstream that figures prominently into the town's history. The factory in Jackson Centre opened in the early 50's after the war and the return of Wally Byam's (Airstream founder) attention from war to adventure on the road. As the sign says Airstream was, is, and remains an "American Legend". We met some wonderful people there at the plant who were very helpful and generous with their time. They welcomed our pet menagerie into the Service lounge (very comfortable place indeed) Photo's of the lounge are at the end.

We parked on Classic Circle at least one night. If you are having work done they come out with a tractor and pick up your rig at 7 am so you have to be up early! The sites are full hook-up and free if you are having work done but $10 (on an honour system) if you are an Airstream just passing through! You can see lots of old trailers in the background, some in for refurbishing, some in for maintenance, and one among them is the first to come off the assembly line of this plant in the early 50's.

The next shot are our Airstream "Airebella" waiting patiently for something to happen... I was not allowed pictures inside the plant but I can tell you it was something to see. They do a free tour every day at 2 pm. The work is mainly done manually with chains, pulleys, and rollers moving the Airstream from one work centre to the next. No robotics that I could see and people who work here seem to love it. Three employees were celebrating 50 years with Airstream that month! Wow!

A shot of the factory building ...

This next shot is of someones trailer getting dropped off by the tractor after some work was done. It is not ours since it only has two axles, ours has three.

As we head back out on the road again we pass through beautiful farmland on the way to the Interstate.


Inside the Customer Lounge with our pets...