Remember This?

I climbed uncertainly into the (Link) simulator, put the earphones on and pulled the hood down. It was hot inside. One dim light illuminated the instrument panel.

Briggs (the Navy NCO in charge of simulator training), called over the radio, "Are you calm?" He insisted that his pupils remain calm.

"I'm calm," I said, fighting down the hysterical feeling that seizes me when pillows are clamped playfull over my head.

I looked at the instruments. They seemed to be watching me.

"C'mon, take off," called Briggs impatiently. I heaved back on the stick and jammed the throttle all the way forward. At this, the instruments, which had been twitching in excitement, went hog wild. The whole panel went into a sort of Disney dance.

"You better recover," called Briggs weakly. "According to the altimeter, you are now eight hundred feet below the earth's surface."

I opened and closed my eyes. It was pitch black, the the image of a sign... grew larger, until the red painted message filled the entire cockpit.

The world is coming to an end. Are you ready?

--Charles F. Spalding, John Oris Carney, describing Spalding's first encounter with a Link Simulator during WWII in "Love At First Flight," Riverside Press, 1943

With experiences like that, you might not think that Ed Link, inventor of the Link IFR simulator, would be the most popular man on Earth. But then, think of the lives he's undoubtedly saved.

Link, who developed the first pilot training device in 1929, was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron (OH) over the weekend.
 
Link, whose legacy lives on today within L-3 Communications' Link Simulation and Training division, joins 16 other major aviation and aerospace leaders in this year's NIHF inductee class. This year's ceremony will bring the NIHF's total number of inductees to 201 since it was first founded in 1973 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the National Council of Patent Law Associations.

"Ed Link's contributions to enhancing pilot training and making aviation safer around the world are extraordinary," said Jim Dunn, president of L-3 Communications' Link Simulation and Training division. "As a visionary 75 years ago he recognized the tremendous value a ground-based flight trainer could bring in improving the skills of both new and experienced pilots. By inventing the first pilot training device and continuing to make significant contributions throughout his aviation career, Ed Link spawned the creation of what today is a multi-billion dollar simulation industry."

A Ground-Bound Flight Oddessy

Link's odyssey in becoming the "Father of Flight Simulation" began in 1927 when, at the age of 23, he began working for his father at the Link Piano and Organ Factory in Binghamton (NY). He built pianos and tuned organs, a job that required a thorough knowledge of the pumps, valves and bellows that directed the air power within the instrument. It was during this period that Link, whose passion was aviation, began to wonder if he could create a training device that could give pilots the skills they would need to safely fly.

Link's idea to develop a ground-based flight trainer was given a boost during a chance meeting with a group of fliers at Wright Field, OH in 1927. In a book on his life, "From Sky to Sea," Link said that he watched as a "Major Ocker" tried to help a group of aviators at Wright Field understand the problems with direction that are encountered while in flight.

"He'd blindfold the people and twist them around in this seat a few times, then ask them which way they were turning," Link states in the book. "They invariably said the wrong way and that was one of the things that gave me the idea that you could make a whole airplane to train a pilot to do everything. He (Major Ocker) was merely demonstrating... that you couldn't tell where you were going by sight or feel. You had to have an instrument that told you where you were turning and whether you were flying straight or level."

Over the next 18 months, Link worked in his father's piano and organ factory's basement to create a machine that could mimic the experiences of flying an airplane without ever leaving the ground. Link applied the principles he had mastered in building fine organs to the design of his new flight training device. The pilot trainer's stubby wooden cockpit fuselage was mounted on organ bellows that Link had borrowed from his father's piano factory. An electric pump drove the organ bellows that allowed the trainer to bank, climb and dive as a pilot operated the controls in the cockpit.

Link received a patent for his new pilot trainer on April 14, 1929, the first in a long series of patents that he would receive for continued flight simulation innovations. Link upgraded the trainer in 1933 to include aviation instruments in common use at the time, such as radio aids and gauges that could tell a pilot if he was flying level. From instrument flight training to new navigation techniques to the first trainer designed to simulate flight in a jet-powered aircraft, Link trainers would continue to evolve and set new standards of excellence in pilot training.

The Legacy Lives On

Today, Link simulators are providing training for pilots and aircrews on some of the world's most advanced military aircraft. Link has built simulators for aircraft platforms including the B-2, F-117, F/A-22, F/A-18, F-16, C-130, T-45 and a wide range of attack, reconnaissance and transport helicopters.

Link Simulation and Training is a systems integration organization that specializes in delivering and supporting training systems and equipment that enhance operational proficiency. Link has major operations in Arlington (TX), Binghamton (NY), Orlando (FL), Broken Arrow (OK), and Phoenix (AZ).

FMI: www.link.com