Sherman Fairchild - Aerial Photography

Aerial Photography

In 1917, after being rejected from the military because of his poor health Fairchild was determined to find another way to 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 effort was over, the U.S. government did purchase two cameras for training. Undeterred, Fairchild went on to focus 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 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 would be 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 went on to become 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. 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 Fairchild employee learned of this plan and was able to get the older material to three Southern California Institutions; Whittier College, UCLA, and California State University at Northridge, where he knew professors who would put the material to good use. Whittier College closed access to the photographs in 2010. In 2012, the collection was put up for sale. The University of California Santa Barbara acquired the collection in December, 2012.