Karem Aircraft, Inc. is an American aerospace manufacturer company with offices in

Lake Forest, California Lake Forest is a city in Orange County, California. The population was 85,858 at the 2020 census. Lake Forest incorporated as a city on December 20, 1991. Prior to incorporation, the community had been known as El Toro. Following a vote in 20 ...

;

York, Virginia Yorktown is a census-designated place (CDP) in York County, Virginia. It is the county seat of York County, one of the eight original shires formed in colonial Virginia in 1682. Yorktown's population was 195 as of the 2010 census, while York Co ...

; and

Victorville, California Victorville is a city in Victor Valley in San Bernardino County, California. Its population as of the 2020 census was 134,810. History In 1858, Aaron G. Lane came to what is now known as Victorville and founded a waystation called "Lane's Cro ...

, founded in 2004 by

Abraham Karem Abraham Karem (born 1947) is a designer of fixed and rotary-wing unmanned vehicles. He is regarded as the founding father of UAV (drone) technology. Biography Abraham Karem was born in Baghdad, Iraq, to an Assyrian Jewish couple. His family move ...

as a rapid development firm specializing in advanced tiltrotor transport aircraft. Karem was the former chief designer for the

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; he, זְרוֹעַ הָאֲוִיר וְהֶחָלָל, Zroa HaAvir VeHahalal, tl, "Air and Space Arm", commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial warfare branch of the Israel Defense ...

— who built his first drone during 1973's

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egy ...

— and has been described by ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

'' as the man who "created the robotic plane that transformed the way modern warfare is waged — and continues to pioneer other airborne innovations". He emigrated to the United States in the late 1970s. Under his previous company, Leading Systems Inc. (LSI), Karem led teams that developed the

Amber Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In Ma ...

and Gnat 750 (predecessors of the

General Atomics MQ-1 Predator The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator (often referred to as the predator drone) is an American remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) built by General Atomics that was used primarily by the United States Air Force (USAF) and Central Intelligence Agency ( ...

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...

(UAV) systems, as well as the

A160 Hummingbird The Boeing A160 Hummingbird (military designation: YMQ-18A) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) helicopter. Its design incorporates many new technologies never before used in helicopters, allowing for greater endurance and altitude than any helic ...

Optimum-Speed Rotor UAV, now a

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

product."Lockheed Martin and Karem Aircraft Team to Support Department of Defense Joint Heavy Lift Program"
, Lockheed Martin, February 29, 2008. Leading Systems has since gone bankrupt and was bought up by United States defense contractor General Atomics. The

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

secretly purchased five drones (now called the " Gnat") from them. Karem agreed to produce a quiet engine, which until then sounded like "a lawnmower in the sky". The new development was renamed the "

Predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

". The Hummingbird was developed by Frontier Aircraft. In May 2004, the company was acquired by Boeing and integrated into Boeing Phantom Works and then into the Advanced Systems group of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. In early 2008, Karem Aircraft teamed with

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

in offering Karem's Optimum Speed Tilt-Rotor (OSTR) design for the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...

Joint Heavy Lift program.Warwick, Graham
"Lockheed joins Karem in OSTR programme"
Flightglobal.com, 11 March 2008. In 2018, Karem Aircraft announced a partnership with

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...

Air to develop a flying taxi. In October 2019, Karem unveiled the

Karem AR40 The Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program was initiated by the United States Army in 2018 to develop a successor to the Bell OH-58 Kiowa scout helicopter as part of the Future Vertical Lift program. The OH-58 was retired in 2014; ...

military helicopter for the

Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft The Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program was initiated by the United States Army in 2018 to develop a successor to the Bell OH-58 Kiowa scout helicopter as part of the Future Vertical Lift program. The OH-58 was retired in 2014; ...

program.

Products

;Frontier Aircraft *

* Gnat 750 *

Boeing A160 Hummingbird The Boeing A160 Hummingbird (military designation: YMQ-18A) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) helicopter. Its design incorporates many new technologies never before used in helicopters, allowing for greater endurance and altitude than any helic ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Karem Aircraft home page

Aerospace companies of the United States Helicopter manufacturers of the United States