Definition
International Business Machines Corporation, an American technology company that has supplied computing hardware, software, and systems used in aviation applications such as air traffic control infrastructure, airline reservation systems, and flight data processing.
Plain English
A large, long-established computer company whose equipment and software have been used behind the scenes in many aviation systems.
Context Anchor
Seen in FAA acronym lists and in aviation documents that mention computer-related equipment or services by company name.
Intuition Check
Do not read IBM as an aircraft system or procedure here. In this context, it is simply the company name International Business Machines.
Example Sentence 1
The acronym IBM appears in the FAA's list of common abbreviations because its systems have historically supported parts of the air traffic control infrastructure.
Example Sentence 2
Maintenance logs referenced an older IBM display unit in the tower.