https://www.hasselblad.com/press/press-releases/high-resolution-imagery-of-the-early-hasselblad-hk7/ 

The Hasselblad legacy starts in 1941 and now comes full circle as one of the few remaining Ross HK-7 aerial cameras, one of the company’s first developments.

The story starts amidst the toils of World War II with an aerial camera recovered from the German army. Victor Hasselblad, who’s name had been established as an optical and photographic expert thanks to the family’s distribution business, was approached by the Swedish government to replicate the captured camera. Faced with the task of reverse-engineering the device, Victor simply responded, “No, but I can make a better one.” Shortly thereafter in the spring of 1940, he established a workshop in the shed of an automobile factory and set forth on what would become the world’s most recognized professional camera system.