ABSTRACT
When IBM received its fi rst subcontract to convert Whirlwind technology into the AN/FSQ-7 in October of 1952, it reaped a windfall of brightboy innovations to commercialize. IBM wasted little time in capitalizing on the technological advantage.5 It not only produced the 704 but also began building the SABRE seat-reservation system for American Airlines , which became “the largest commercial real-time data processing system in the world.”6 And there in the thick of it all from the very beginning was none other than Forrester’s digital friend and advisor, Perry Crawford . Crawford had retired from the Navy in 1952, and the very same year popped up at IBM as a member of its Product Planning group . He was the fi rst to identify airline reservations as an ideal focus for SAGE technology .
