The First Flight Simulator
It’s difficult to say if there were devices that early aviators called flight simulators, but the first recognized simulator, was known as the Link Trainer. Named after its inventor, Edwin Link Jr., it was designed in 1928. Mr. Link accomplished the sensation of flying using a system based on compressed air manipulated through vacuum operated bellows and controlled by valves that were connected to the stick and rudder pedals. He was part of a family business that built musical organs which also used the technology of manipulating compressed air.
The Link Trainer was an early robot designed to resemble an airplane in miniature and teach pilots to fly by instruments. Although the mechanical device did not leave the ground, it simulated every maneuver of a plane in flight. In its early days, it was not well accepted, instrument flying was not common in the late 1920s, and the need not understood. When the Army learned how difficult it was for their Air Mail pilots to fly ‘blind’ in bad weather or in night flying they purchased six trainers. That was in 1934. The Japanese Navy purchased a sizable quantity in 1935 to train their pilots and the Royal Air Force purchased another 250 simulators in 1939. The quantity wasn’t enough to make the business overly successful and to increase revenues Mr. Link sold amusement park rides in the simulator for a quarter.
That all changed when America entered WWII. Pilots were needed, in a hurry. Any tool that would equip a new pilot with more experience was in demand. The simulator was also a way to save valuable gasoline and service time on the limited numbers of aircraft that were available for training. The Link Trainer is an odd looking device on first inspection. It is essentially a box, with a hooded cockpit in the basic shape of an airplane. It was positioned on a fixed base and could simulate any position of an aircraft in flight. The instrument panel, however, was an exact replica of the one in actual aircraft.
The procedure, to learn to fly via the Link method, had the student flyer seated in the cockpit, and the hood closed over their head. The instructor manipulated a series of dials that made the simulator respond as if it were a plane in flight. By working certain levers and pushing various buttons, flight conditions were duplicated and the instrument panel in the Link revealed the status of the plane to the student pilot. The Link Trainer could safely simulate flying conditions that pilots, navigators and bombardiers might meet in various weather conditions over England and the open sea.
When the student flyer was in the Link Trainer, an instructor put them through their paces; first the flyer made simple turns and banks to become familiar with the instruments, and later progressed through stalls, spins, bad weather, and virtually every condition they might conceivably encounter in actual flight. There was a constant two-way communication between the Link instructor and the student flyer by a radio interphone system. A self-recording instrument known as the “crab” was used to show the progress of the simulated plane on a chart. After an initial introduction to the simulator a student flyer would learn about a “problem” that they would be encountering. The problem was a condition simulating air conditions at a given altitude as a storm overhead, for instance. The instructor, or instructress most of the time, was seated at a desk about 100 yards behind the trainer. They would duplicate signals sent out by radio range stations or civil airways or those sent out in combat zones as homing devices. The student flyer then had to fly by his instruments in the Link Trainer and keep the device on a prescribed course, relying entirely on his instruments. The Link pilot’s course could actually be set on a theoretical cross-country flight, entirely on instruments.
“Sounds simple? Well, most people I’ve talked to don’t remember it as simple, at all.” After an hour’s ride in a Link, the student flyer felt as if they had ridden out a flight with all the worst possible conditions rolled into a single hop. It also accomplished its primary mission, teaching a pilot to how to depend on their instruments to bring them safely back to their bases. Rated pilots also used the simulator to maintain their skills.
To be an instructor wasn’t easy either. It required a comprehensive training in radio procedure; code and navigation usually took from four to six months. It required special courses in radio mechanics and a great degree of patience. Lt. Margaret Newman was a commanding officer of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) at Kellogg Field and said: “Women are especially good at instructing the pilots in the Link Trainer because they are patient. It is exacting work, but exciting. Women will have a great future in aviation and there is no doubt that the WACs will produce most of the women in flying after the war is over.” She was partially right; at least one Link Trainer was supplied at each of their major flying fields in the U.S. and its overseas territories.
Thirty-five Allied countries used the simulator to train their pilots, the U.S. military branches purchased more than 7,300. They were used until the Korean War when Jets and their speed eventually called for new technology.
John Cilio - You can contact John at: questions@vintageflyer.com