
History of computing in Scandinavian Airlines System [in Danish] [pdf] - unixhero
http://www.sdsk.dk/2010/sas_data-hist/FUTv03.pdf
======
tempodox
I can only curse myself for not learning enough Danish by now.

Another interesting source of practical applications of computing machinery is
the book “Computer” by Herb Grosch:
[http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/computer.html](http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/computer.html)

He also lets on that remote electronic flight booking was already possible in
the early 1960s.

Also have a look at Frank da Cruz's pages about computing history at NYC's
Columbia University:
[http://www.columbia.edu/~fdc/](http://www.columbia.edu/~fdc/)

------
JacobiX
It would be interesting also to see what they are using now.

~~~
clmns
Yeah correct - flight planning, crew is managed by Sabre FPM and Crew Manager
(afaik). ACARS are managed through FPM , HERMES and some strange interface for
the old mainframes (the rest of the comm is going through this). The rest is
mostly SAAS, but in the RDP sense. I can assure you, its definitely not
"Cloud", but Remote Desktop Computing. SAS also has multiple small airlines
(local) attached to it, some of them are using their own stuff, but most of it
is central.

This is by far one of the most stale industries as yarper mentioned. Really
long sales cycles heavily relying on connections and also large
implementation/customization fees are part of it. Esp. in flight planning -
where 0.1% fuel savings are important, things haven't moved anywhere.

~~~
acveilleux
Sounds like healthcare at the medium hospital and up level.

------
yarper
Is there a version in English?

~~~
unixhero
I have not been able to find an English translation. Google Translate does a
great job at this text and I think its worth the work for people interested in
early global networked messaging and computing with Mainframes, Unix, pre-
TCPIP, post-TCPIP etc...

After googling after some exotic hardware mentioned in the text, I found a
translated section from this text in "History of Nordic Computing" [0].

I am helping my girlfriend with an internal project in SAS, and I found this
text when I was searching for documentation on an ancient Mainframe "QQLIF
file" which is still in use today! This text does indeed contain a description
of it:

"All messages in and out of systems were logged on logtapes, so we started
using them to extract traffic in the network. IBM mainframe computer was we
used for our data processing and SAS (Statistical Analysis System) was the
"language" we programmed in. At an earlier point, we had been losing track
over which terminals we had and where they stood. Therefore, we had already
built up a widely used file called QQLIF and contained a variety of
information about each terminal. It was both a real time online "direct
access" file at Unisys, and a batch copy on IBM. Mainframes known terminal's
trust, and by means of QQLIF file could be translated into PLID. Because of
strict PLID'ens building could we add line drop, controls, and terminal for
individual messages."

[0]
[https://books.google.dk/books?id=c7MlCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA276&lpg=P...](https://books.google.dk/books?id=c7MlCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA276&lpg=PA276&dq=lorenz+agentset&source=bl&ots=kH7t_NKsLg&sig=v3PTowEl_6lY8X-nxafQ9fOA5Ac&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAGoVChMIq8jBkeDpxwIVxZ1yCh26zgoK#v=onepage&q=lorenz%20agentset&f=false)

~~~
fulafel
Google Translate told me "The page you requested was too large to translate"
\- got a working GT link?

~~~
unixhero
I am afraid you have to translate the section you wish to read by copying and
pasting into Google Translate. A minor hassle imo.

------
danso
If you enjoy reading about the history of airlines, I highly recommend Thomas
Petzinger's "Hard Landing"...a good chunk of the book is devoted to the
airlines' brutal fight over computer systems...reading it is a great look into
how something so seemingly mundane as arranging ticket reservations was so
revolutionary in changing the business...and how so fundamentally even
primitive computers impact our lives:

[https://books.google.com/books?id=GF5GZaTd8qsC&lpg=PA62&ots=...](https://books.google.com/books?id=GF5GZaTd8qsC&lpg=PA62&ots=EKsOUN6uRE&dq=hard%20landing%20thomas%20petzinger%20computer%20george&pg=PA59#v=onepage&q&f=false)

Here's an excerpt regarding the state of the industry before computers:

> An airline seat is like fresh food—a grapefruit, say—in that it spoils after
> so much time on the shelf. Every empty seat taking off on every flight is a
> spoiled grapefruit and exactly as valueless. Both required time, effort, and
> money to create, and both came to a wasteful, meaningless end. And on an
> exceedingly large number of flights, the sale of one last seat, according to
> the First Rule of Airline Economics, could easily decide whether the plane
> flew the entire distance in the red or the black. As the builder of American
> Airlines, C. R. Smith had agonized continually over the problem of matching
> passengers with seats before the latter perished upon departure. The trick
> was to balance reservations against inventory, a far greater task than it
> might seem. At first, in the early 1930s, a single ledger had passed from
> hand to hand as agents in a central office recorded reservations and erased
> those that were canceled.

> With the advent of the DC-3, as the fleets and schedules of the airlines
> swelled and as the seating capacity of each plane increased, a single book
> became impractical, so multiple books were maintained. These had to be
> reconciled frequently—a massively time-consuming process—and even so, each
> book was inherently out-of-date at all times. Books gave way to chalk and
> slate boards and eventually to electric light boards. More and more agents
> were crammed into the reservations offices, with the line of sight to the
> blackboard limited by the space between structural support columns—22 feet
> in most buildings of the time. Some agents peered through opera glasses.
> Teletypes clattered. Clerks known as “card boys” scurried from desk to desk,
> eventually to be replaced by mechanical conveyors. One blackboard gave rise
> to multiple blackboards, which quickly encountered the same problems that
> multiple ledgers had caused.

> A science called “reservations theory” was born to cope with the
> exponentially worsening challenge, but to little avail; as with so much else
> in the airline business, there was no economy of scale in handling
> reservations. The more the airlines grew, the less efficient they became.
> The need to coordinate reservations among multiple cities—indeed, among
> multiple airlines—added still another dimension of complexity. For most of
> their history the airlines had been scheduled like railroads: numerous stops
> along a single line, with passengers boarding and disembarking at each stop,
> sometimes to board a second flight on a different airline flying in a
> roughly perpendicular direction. Confirming the itinerary for a single
> passenger traveling on two connecting airlines required no fewer than 20
> separate communications, making the airlines, even in the 1940s, among the
> world’s biggest users of leased telephone lines. But what if the entire
> process could be automated?

Petzinger Jr., Thomas (2010-12-01). Hard Landing: The Epic Contest for Power
and Profits That Plunged the Airlines into Chaos (Kindle Locations 1270-1275).
Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

