The Computing Boom in the U.S. Aeronautical Industry, 1945–1965

Whereas standard accounts on the history of modern computing tell the development of the digital computer as an isolated event on the East Coast of the U.S., this paper will show the history of machine computing in the context of the broad and rapid development of aeronautical weapons in the U.S. military since 1945. Analogue computing plays an important role that is nearly completely ignored by standard accounts. The extensive literature on the history of electronic digital computers does not take into account the special history of computing machines that the U.S. aircraft and missile industry employed from 1945 to 1965. The paper shows the way in which the aircraft industry applied digital computing parallel to analogue computing. Then, the paper shows the cautious steps towards digital computing in the aircraft and missile industry, from the IBM 604 punch card machine, to slow digital computers with drums, to high speed digital computers. The paper will give some evidence to show that it was not before 1957 that an airplane was flown which was designed with the aid of a high speed digital computer. Up to 1970, this kind of computer did not replace the electronic analogue computers that were needed throughout the design process of the aircraft and missile industry. In addition, in missile and space programs, electronic analogue computers prevailed in Air Force research centres, and in those of NASA. For example, in the research centre in Langley, Virginia, NASA set up a large, all-purpose analogue computer for the Mercury project in 1960.