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The Link Flight Trainer played an important role in the development of commercial aviation. Patented in 1931 by inventor and private pilot, Edwin A. Link, Jr., of Huntington, Indiana, early sales were mostly to amusement parks for use as carnival rides. Link, who had worked in his father’s piano and organ company, used a bellows and vacuum mechanism located in the base similar to automatic musical instruments of the period. This enabled the miniaturized fuselage to mimic climbing, diving, and banking in response to the trainee’s use of the control column and pedals. Instrument flying was taught with the canopy closed, and the pilot’s efficiency in following a set course was recorded and graded by a plotting device at the instructor’s desk. The U.S. Army Air Corps purchased six units in 1934, and airlines then began showing interest as well. United Air Lines purchased two Link Flight Trainers in 1934 for their pilots at the Boeing School of Aeronautics in Oakland, California. By the end of World War II, Link’s company had sold over 10,000 of his “blue box” trainers. His early models provided safe instruction and advanced skills development for over half a million aviators. Have you ever seen a link trainer?
This image was posted on November 07, 2023.