Erich Bachem

In the 1930s Erich Bachem designed the Aero-Sport camping trailer built from plywood by the glider company Wolf Hirth in Kirchheim unter Teck.

In February 1942 he founded Bachem-Werke GmbH, a supplier of spare parts for the aircraft industry, in Waldsee, Baden-Württemberg.

Possibly he wished to escape US agents who planned to send him to the USA with Wernher von Braun's group as part of Operation Overcast.

Despite this light weight, they were unusually well constructed with a steel tube internal frame and an insulated aluminium skin over this, at a time when most caravans were still made of plywood.

They are still distinguished by their 'pop top', a section of the fibreglass roof that raises to provide extra headroom, with a canvas cover between.