Computer History: Origin of IBM SABRE Reservation System (American Airlines) 7090 mainframe 1960

IBM Computer History: Origin of the IBM SABRE Airline Reservation System, developed from 1957 to 1959, installed in 1960. The world’s first large scale electronic reservation system. Built utilizing IBM 7090 mainframe systems, and technologies used in the Air Force’s missile defense program, it revolutionized the airline industry of the 1960’s. With vintage films from the 1950’s and a rare IBM film of the SABRE Experimental Agent’s workstation of 1958, we can see how the system evolved over time. We also discuss the pre-SABRE “Reservisor” system developed by Teleregister Corporation. A 4 minute historical into, followed by the 8 minute IBM Experimental workstation, and short image glossary. Total run time about 13 mins.

{Presented for Educational and Historical use only. IBM film clip is copyrighted by International Business Machines Corporation and used here with permission. Computer History Archives Project ("CHAP")

IBM originally named the project SABER for “Semi-Automatic Business Environment Response”.
In 1959, American Airlines changed it to SABRE for “Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment”, for marketing purposes.

With Special Thanks to:

IBM Corporate Archives
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
Max Campbell, Archivist
https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/sabre/

Computer History Museum
Mountain View, California
Dag Spicer, Senior Curator
https://computerhistory.org/

Charles Babbage Institute
(Oral history interview of R. Blair Smith)
https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/107637

San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives
https://www.youtube.com/user/sdasmarchives

Vintage Airport film footage
The Prelinger Archives

Modern Narration: David Melvin

Reference Links:

SABRE: 10 page report describing the System (Computer History Museum)
https://www.computer.org/csdl/pds/api/csdl/proceedings/download-article/12OmNC943FL/pdf

Teleregister Corporation brochure (Computer History Museum)
http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Teleregister/Teleregister.SpecialPurposeSystems.1956.102646324.pdf

(IBM 7090 Specs) A Third Survey of Domestic Electronic Digital Computing Systems
Report No. 1115, March 1961, by Martin H. Weik, by Ballistic Research Lab.(BRL),
Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland
http://www.ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL61.html

Datamation magazine, March 1969
Issue Topic: “The busy crowded world of air transportation”
http://bitsavers.org/magazines/Datamation/196903.pdf

The Sabre Story (Sabre Corporation)
https://www.sabre.com/files/Sabre-History.pdf

Sabre Holdings Corporation (history, profile)
https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history/Ro-Sh/Sabre-Holdings-Corporation.html

Book: “Airline Operations and Management “
by Gerald N. Cook and Bruce G. Billig, 2017, Routledge, New York, NY

DC 7 History --
https://epicflightacademy.com/dc-7/

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