support the World War I effort. Fairchild and his father went to Washington and won a government contract to develop an improved aerial camera. The camera featured a shutter that was inside the lens, thereby reducing the significant image distortion caused by the slow shutter speeds that could not keep up with the movement of the plane. The U.S. government gave Fairchild a budget of $7,000; the project, however, ended up costing $40,000; his father paid the difference. Although the military did not accept his camera until the war was over, the U.S. government did purchase two cameras for training. Undeterred, Fairchild focused his attention on developing a more advanced camera, and in February 1920 he established the Fairchild Aerial Camera Corporation (predecessor of Fairchild Camera and Instrument). Shortly thereafter the U.S. Army ordered 20 additional Fairchild cameras and selected it as the standard for aerial cameras. The need for Fairchild's aerial cameras continued to grow; during World War II over 90% of all aerial cameras used by Allied Forces were of Fairchild design or manufacture. Fairchild Aerial Surveys Fairchild wanted to expand the capabilities of his cameras for map making and aerial surveying. In 1921, he formed Fairchild Aerial Surveys and bought a surplus World War I Fokker D.VII biplane to take his aerial photographs. Shortly afterward, Fairchild landed a contract to make a photomap of Newark, New Jersey, which was the first aerial mapping of a major city. In 1923, Fairchild formed Fairchild Aerial Surveys of Canada, Limited after he was asked by the chief forester of the Laurentide Paper Company to perform aerial surveys of Canada. Back in the United States he made an aerial map of Manhattan Island which became a commercial success and was implemented by several New York businesses. Other cities began using aerial mapping, as they found it was faster and less expensive than the ground surveys of the time. Aerial photography proved to be a successful commercial venture. To accommodate this growing commercial demand for aerial surveys, Fairchild established Fairchild Aerial Surveys in the United States. Among Fairchild's aerial photographers during the 1920s was Edith Keating, one of the first female aerial photographers and later an advocate for the inclusion of women pilots in WWII. In 1965 Fairchild sold Fairchild Aerial Surveys to Aero Services, Inc., which decided to keep only the more recent photographs and dispose of the others. A former