Karem Aircraft

Karem Aircraft, Inc. is an American aerospace company with offices in Lake Forest, California and Fort Worth, Texas. It was founded by Abraham Karem as a rapid development firm specializing in advanced tiltrotor transport aircraft. Karem had led previous teams, which developed the Amber and GNAT 750 (predecessors of the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator), unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems, as well as the A160 Hummingbird Optimum-Speed Rotor UAV, now a Boeing product. [http://www.lockheedmartin.com/news/press_releases/2008/0229ae_horizontallift.html "Lockheed Martin and Karem Aircraft Team to Support Department of Defense Joint Heavy Lift Program"] , Lockheed Martin, February 29, 2008.]

Karem was the former chief designer for the Israeli Air Force, and had migrated to the United States in the late 1970s. Karem's company had since gone bankrupt and been bought up by a US defense contractor. The CIA secretly bought 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 became rechristened the "Predator". [Steve Coll, "Ghost Wars" (Penguin, 2005 edn), pp.527-8 and 658 note 5.]

The Hummingbird was developed by Frontier Aircraft. In May 2004, the company was acquired by Boeing [ [http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2004/december/ts_sf04.html Boeing Frontiers Online] ] 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 in offering Karem's Optimum Speed Tilt-Rotor (OSTR) design for the US Department of Defense's Joint Heavy Lift program.Warwick, Graham. [http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/03/11/222124/lockheed-joins-karem-in-ostr-programme.html "Lockheed joins Karem in OSTR programme"] , Flightglobal.com, 11 March 2008.]

Products

;Frontier Aircraft
* Amber and GNAT 750
* Boeing A160 Hummingbird

References

External links

* [http://www.vtol.org/pdf/2006forecast.pdf VERTIFLITE Rotorcraft forecast 2006-2015]
* [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/ostr.htm Optimum Speed Tilt Rotor OSTR on globalsecurity.org]
* [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/jhl.htm Joint Heavy Lift (JHL) on globalsecurity.org]
* [http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/employee-development-leadership/963444-1.html New Frontier: Life After Boeing Buys Drone Maker]