Background
Abraham Karem was born in Baghdad on June 27, 1937 to a Jewish couple. His family moved to Israel in 1951, where he grew up.
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Abraham Karem
Edit ProfileEducation
He graduated in aeronautical engineering from Technion.
Career
Since an early age, he had an innate passion for aeronautics, and at the age of 14, he started building model aircraft. Karem is regarded as the founding father of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (drone) technology. He built his first drone during the Yom Kippur war for the Israeli Air Force.
In the 1970s, he emigrated to the United States.
He founded Leading Systems Incorporated. in his home garage, where he started manufacturing his first drone, Albatross, and later on, the more sophisticated Amber, which eventually evolved into the famous Predator drone, which brought him the title of "dronefather". Karem has been described by The Economist magazine as the man who "created the robotic plane that transformed the way modern warfare is waged and continues to pioneer other airborne innovations".
Leading Systems has since gone bankrupt and was bought up by the United States defense contractor General Atomics, which employed Karem and his team for the development of highly endurable Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. The new development resulted in the creation of Predator, based on previous model Amber.
