William Fetter Creates the First Computer Graphics

At the Wichita Branch of the Military Aircraft Systems Division of Boeing, William Fetter coined the term “computer graphics” to refer to his plotter drawings. He created visualization on a computer “to help airplane designers and engineers envision on a computer screen the diverse human body shapes and a pilot’s limited vision in a cockpit as a plane lands.” These were among the first true perspective drawings produced by a computer. These historic artifacts are some of the beginnings of the computer graphics industry and would later in the ’60s be displayed as Boeing Man.