The ‘50s Spartan Royal Spartanette Is Still a Luxury Trailer With Incredible Potential

In recent years, demand for travel trailers of all shapes, sizes and configurations has increased exponentially. People want to get on the road for at least a short while, regardless of whether they’re new at it or have plenty of experience, and makers are working toward offering them the right amount of options to choose from, from economical to the most luxurious.

In the latter category, here’s how one American aircraft company did it back in the 1940s.

Here is a Spartanette travel trailer, the 1953 model year. It’s just been sold on auction platform Bring A Trailer for the impressive amount of $62,700 (hat tip to Jalopnik) – impressive because the listing came with several caveats, like the mention that the condition of the axles and hubs was unknown, or the fact that no photo of the underbody was offered. Still, a Spartanette travel trailer, due to its rarity and sheer size, is a wise investment with incredible potential, worthy of a future permanent and fully mobile home. Tiny houses have nothing on it.

The Spartanette was produced by the Oklahoma-based company Spartan Aircraft Company, which, as its name clearly shows, was into making personal aircraft. Initially known as Mid-Continent Aircraft Company, it was acquired by oil baron William Skelly in 1928, who reorganized it and poised for profitability. The company focused on aircraft production, aircraft components, an aeronautical school and, in the latter stages, travel trailers running the gamut of prices.

The company’s most successful model was the Spartan Executive aircraft, produced in the late ‘30s and early ‘40s. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that the first trailer was inspired by it. In 1935, oil tycoon J. Paul Getty purchased the majority in Spartan and, with the war-led boom in production dying down, he decided the move toward travel trailers.

The first prototype, a Spartan Manor (the name says it all, really), was introduced in mid-1945, and the model rolled off the production line later that year. Some 100 units would be made, and were then followed by no less than 18 different models of all sizes, builds and pricing, to suit all segments of the market (the Sparcraft and the Sparlane were the most affordable options).

The Spartanette was a high-end model, though neither as expensive nor as fancy fancy as the Spartan Manor. It still used the same monocoque design that trickled down from aircraft production, and was described as the “Cadillac of trailers.” At 35 feet (10.7-meters) long, with sleeping for up to four people and a complete home-like layout, it’s easy to understand why. The Spartanette had a riveted polished aluminum shell, birch wood cabinetry, a full dining room, a full living room, a full bathroom, a kitchen with everything in it, including dual farm sink, and cozy bedrooms. It was, in short, a proper home, which is how Spartan advertised it at the time.

This ‘53 model that surfaced recently still showed how glorious the original build was, and it was on purpose. The seller worked on and off on it for two years to restore it, with an eye on keeping original stuff on it and replacing what could not be fixed with period-correct items. Lights, curtains, and pieces of furniture were replaced, but without changing the ‘50s vibe of the place.

Other improvements included new plumbing in the kitchen and bathroom, a red Marmoleum floor, and a new front jack. The trailer still needed work, and the listing noted that duly, but it could, when finished, serve as a permanent home to an entire family – one with serious vintage appeal.

As noted above, Spartanettes don’t come to the market all that often. When they do, they’re a can’t-miss opportunity for restoration enthusiasts or savvy business people looking to capitalize on the current tiny home / RV bubble. They can be restored to their former glory or, as Andy Schnack of Andy’s Trailers has shown time and time again, modernized and turned into tiny home-like abodes.

Spartanettes were ahead of the time back in the late ‘40s (and into the early ‘60s, when production ended). To this day, they still retain their incredible potential – and appeal.