Commercial aerial photography[edit]The first commercial aerial photography company in the UK wasAerofilmsLtd, founded by World War I veterans Francis Wills andClaude Graham Whitein 1919. The company soon expanded into a business with major contracts in Africa and Asia as well as in the UK. Operations began from theStag Lane Aerodromeat Edgware, using the aircraft of the London Flying School. Subsequently theAircraft Manufacturing Company(later theDe Havilland Aircraft Company), hired anAirco DH.9along with pilot entrepreneurAlan Cobham.[11]

New York City1930, aerial photograph of Fairchild Aerial Surveys Inc.From 1921, Aerofilms carried out vertical photography for survey and mapping purposes. During the 1930s, the company pioneered the science ofphotogrammetry(mapping from aerial photographs), with theOrdnance Surveyamongst the company's clients.[12]Another successful pioneer of the commercial use of aerial photography was the AmericanSherman Fairchildwho started his own aircraft firmFairchild Aircraftto develop and build specialized aircraft for high altitude aerial survey missions.[13]One Fairchild aerial survey aircraft in 1935 carried unit that combined two synchronized cameras, and each camera having five six inch lenses with a ten-inch lenses and took photos from 23,000 feet. Each photo covered two hundred and twenty five square miles. One of its first government contracts was an aerial survey of New Mexico to study soil erosion.[14]A year later, Fairchild introduced a better high altitude camera with nine-lens in one unit that could take a photo of 600 square miles with each exposure from 30,000 feet.[15]