The Airstream Funeral Coach
Did you know Airstream made hearses? Well, sort of. In 1979 the company had this great idea to come out with Class A motorhomes based on a gasoline GM chassis. The funny thing is, that’s also the same time another oil crisis happened and motorhomes were as popular as, well, clowns at a funeral, frankly.
So by 1981 business was anything but booming and the company decided to use this capability to branch into other endeavors for their dying coach business. Cue the Airstream Funeral Coach.
It actually makes a lot of sense, really. You could transport 14 living participants of the funeral along with the guest of honor in their final resting place. You could also transport a lot of flowers in the rear of the vehicle so it actually made a lot of sense.
In 1981, the cost of a Funeral Coach was $85,000. A traditional hearse came in at $40,000, and two standard funeral limousines cost $60,000. Comparatively, the Funeral Coach was a cost-efficient option.
The living had both airline-style seating up front but also a swanky wrap-around sofa as well.
The standard floor plans were 27’ and 28’, but customized floor plans ranging from 24’ to 35’ were also available. Some funeral home owners chose to add features such as a radio, television, microwave, and lavatory to provide extra comfort for families on longer journeys.
Funeral home nameplates and identifiers were added to the exterior of the Funeral Coach, but these were removable. Because it did not look like a hearse, the unit was versatile, and early brochures advertised that it could be loaned out for special functions.
For example, if you’re the maker of a killer barbecue I’m sure this might be a pretty nice tie-in.
The Funeral Coach wasn’t the only offering from Airstream with an Air Coach and Sales Coach also in the family of odd RVs from the company. The Air Coach was a vehicle that would allow for mobile meetings and the Sales Coach was intended as a mobile sales office.
Overall the Funeral Coach wasn’t enough to save the Airstream Motorhome from passing away as only 32 were built over a span of ten years between 1981 and 1991.
