Karem Aircraft, Inc. is an American aerospace manufacturer company with offices in Lake Forest, California; York, Virginia; and Victorville, California, founded in 2004 by Abraham Karem as a rapid development firm specializing in advanced tiltrotor transport aircraft.
Karem was the former chief designer for the Israeli Air Force — who built his first drone during 1973's Yom Kippur War — and has been described by The Economist as the man who "created the robotic plane that transformed the way modern warfare is waged — and continues to pioneer other airborne innovations".
Under his previous company, Leading Systems Inc. (LSI), Karem led teams that 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.
[2] Leading Systems has since gone bankrupt and was bought up by United States defense contractor General Atomics.
[2][5] In 2018, Karem Aircraft announced a partnership with Uber Air to develop a flying taxi.