With several of his inventions on display in the Smithsonian
Institute, 67 patents to his name, and over 100 inventions, Ben
Kleinerman, 91, radiates electrifying enthusiasm for improving
the lives of others through his creative brainstorms -- from the
quirky to the essential. If there is one thing Ben Kleinerman is
proud of, it's his unique role in Israel's victory in the 1967
Six-Day War. He was the principal engineer and Program Manager
of the KA-56 camera at Fairchild Camera Corp. at the time, and
they had just developed a brand new technology. In the
underbelly of a fighter plane, this special panoramic camera was
equipped with their novel infrared-enabled Poromat film. An
ingenious device, the advantage of this camera and its unique
film was that fighter jets could do surveillance and
reconnaissance missions, capturing images of the territory
beneath them, instantly develop those pictures while still in
the air, and then turn around and strike with amazing accuracy.
Prior to the KA56, the reconnaissance