During World War II, MIT was enlisted by the US Navy to create a computer driven flight simulation system to help train their bomber crews. Unlike older systems like the Link Trainer, they envisioned this new system would be abl to provide a much more realistic model that they could use for any tye of plane. This was an important consideration at the time, when many new designs were being introduced into service.

     The Navy funded development under Project Whirlwind, and the lab placed Jay Forrester in charge of the project. After seeing a demonstration of the ENIAC, they agreed that a digital computer was the best option. This would allow the accuracy of the simulation to be improved with the addition of more code in thecomputer program, as opposed to adding parts to the machine. As long as the machine was fast enough, there was no theoretical limit to the complexity of the simulation.

     Several women were involved in the initial development work, including Judy Levenson (now Judy Clapp). Clapp had just received an M.S. degree in applied science from Harvard in the early fifties, when she started work on the Whirlwind,

helping to program a prototype of one of the first nonnumerical applications of computers: an air defense system that received inputs from radar, tracked flying aircraft, and directed the courses of other aircraft.