William Hawley Bowlus

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William Hawley Bowlus (May 8, 1886 - August 27, 1967)^[1] was a designer, engineer and builder of aircraft (especially gliders) and recreational vehicles in the 1930s and '40s. Today he is most widely known for his key role in the design of Airstream travel trailers, which followed his prior famed work as the chief designer of 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 US Army Air Corps in 1943. In popular culture he is usually referred to as Hawley Bowlus.

Bowlus was an expert at soaring flight and at building gliders, and gave gliding lessons to both Charles and Anne Lindbergh. In 1930 he and Lindbergh glided together over the San Diego area^{[citation needed]}. The club in San Diego is called Torrey Pines, and is still active today with glider enthusiasts. Anne Morrow Lindbergh received the first glider license issued to a female in the United States, during these 1930 flights at Torrey Pines. Bowlus was also the first American to break Orville Wright's 1911 soaring duration record in an American designed and built glider.^[2]

Bowlus was inducted into the Soaring Hall of Fame in 1954.^[2]