Terminal Interchange from PANAMAC Airlines Reservation System
date: label: Date made
content: 1962
name: label: user
content: Pan American Airlines
label: maker
content: IBM
notes: label: Description
content: The PANAMAC, Pan American's first worldwide airline reservation management system, was installed in 1964, and used the IBM 7080 Data Processing System. PANAMAC linked hundreds of agent sets throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Caribbean with the Pan American computing center in New York City. The IBM 1006 Terminal Interchange was part of the networked system shown in this graphic from the PANAMAC manual. Using teleprocessors networked to the computing center, agents could access Pan Am flight information and book reservations almost instantly. While this is now commonplace, at the time it was an innovative and successful system.
label: Description
content: PANAMAC was based on computer networks developed for the United States military where real-time information was necessary to calculate projected trajectories for missiles. The IBM-designed network was only the second real-time network to be installed for high-speed computing and communication in the airline industry. The first networked system developed for real-time airline reservations was American Airlines' SABRE (Semi-Automatic Business-Related Environment), developed by IBM and implemented in 1961 on an IBM 7090 system. Delta's Deltamatic flight reservation system, installed in 1964, was also designed by IBM and used an IBM 7074 system. Prior to these systems, reservation information was available but quickly outdated. A few early computer systems, such as American Airlines' Reservisor, designed by Teleregister Corp., provided quick access to flight information but were not set up to receive information. Reservations still had to be taken by hand and calls placed to airlines to confirm availability.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
label: See more items in
content: Computers & Business Machines
label: See more items in
content: Transportation
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Pan American World Airways, Inc.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CI.335516
label: accession number
content: 321704
label: catalog number
content: 335516
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Special Purpose Computer
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)