Page "Jay Wright Forrester" Paragraph 4

At the end of the war, at MIT, Forrester in 1944 began development of an advanced aircraft flight simulator.

The simulator, originally conceived as an analog computer, evolved to become the Whirlwind digital computer for experimental development of military combat information systems.

Around 1949, the Navy was losing interest in Whirlwind and considered scrapping it.

Then, in August, the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb.

Relations between the US and its former ally had so deteriorated that this event inspired alarm throughout the government, and people in the military realized that computers would be essential in the defense of the country now that the USSR had the capacity to attack from afar.

Whirlwind, as the Navy's most advanced computer, suddenly looked good again. The Air Force, faced with the complexities of ground-controlled intercept, then entered the picture.

Whirlwind then, in turn, evolved to become SAGE ( Semi-Automatic Ground Environment ), the central albeit distributed locus of NORAD's air defense command, control, communication and intercept system for North America.

Forrester continued his research in electrical and computer engineering until 1956.

By then he felt the pioneering days in digital computers were over and he left engineering to go into management.