Education
Fairchild attended the University of Arizona, Columbia University, and Harvard University.
Fairchild attended the University of Arizona, Columbia University, and Harvard University.
Fairchild began to study problems of aerial photography at an early age, and in 1918 he designed a film-spacing mechanism that was accepted by the War Department. His between-the-lens shutter was incorporated into an automatic aerial camera purchased by the War Department. He formed the Fairchild Aerial Camera Company in 1922 and Fairchild Aerial Surveys in 1924. He gave Igor Sikorsky his first airplane order in the United States, then formed his own company in 1925 and built the first American airplane to have an enclosed pilot's cabin and a hydraulic landing gear. Besides airplanes for aerial surveying and commercial and private use, Fairchild designed a low-wing primary trainer, in-line air-cooled aircraft engines, special processes for producing semiplastic materials for aircraft construction, and a number of improvements on aerial cameras and other precision instruments. He was chairman of the board of the Fairchild Camera and Equipment Company and the Fairchild Hiller Corporation.