The Link Trainer.

In the US alone, half a million pilots learned instrument flying in the Link Trainer before the World War 2.

In the US alone, counting among US Army, US Navy and US Marine pilots, half a million pilots learned instrument flying in the Link Trainer.

The term Link Trainer, also known as the “Blue box” and “Pilot Trainer” referres to a series of flight simulators produced between the early 1930s and early 1950s by Ed Link, based on technology he pioneered in 1929 at his family’s business.

The Link Trainer or "The Blue Box".

The Link Trainer holds a significant place in aviation history. It was the first true flight simulator, and provided safe training to hundreds of thousands of student pilots during the 1930s and 1940s.

The Link Trainer, “Blue box” and “Pilot Trainer”.

These simulators became famous during World War 2, when they were used as key pilot training aids by most combatant nations.

The Link Trainer, Model ESP from 1930s.

Ed Link was a former organ builder. He used his knowledge of pumps, valves, and bellows to create a flight simulator that responded to the pilot’s controls and gave an accurate reading on the included instruments.

The C-3 Link Trainer, 1930s.

In 1928, Link left his father’s organ building business to begin work on a ‘pilot trainer.’ He designed the trainer using suction through fabric bellows to cause motion. Organ bellows and a motor provided the means for the trainer, mounted on a pedestal, to pitch, roll, dive and climb as the student ‘flew’ it.

The Link ANT-18 Trainer, 1930s.

The original Link Trainer was created in 1929 out of the need for a safe way to teach new pilots how to fly by instruments. Most of his first sales were to amusement parks. In the beginning there was very little interest by the flying community in Link’s trainer.

In 1931 he received a patent on his ‘pilot maker’ training device.

Trainers built from 1934 up to the early 1940s had the a color scheme that featured a bright blue fuselage with yellow wings and tail sections. These wings and tail sections had control surfaces that actually moved in response to the pilot’s movement of the stick and rudder.

Link Trainer ANT-18 - Army/Navy Trainer Model 18, 1930s-1940s.

The Link Trainer could be used in all weather conditions and at all times of the night and day making it a cost effective trainer.

Initially the Trainer was meant for instruction of visual flight, but in 1934, after a series of tragic accidents while flying the airmail, the Army Air Corps bought six Link Trainers to assist in training pilots to fly at night and in bad weather, relying on instruments.

Aircrew training during the 1940s at a Link ANT-18 Trainer.

The need for pilots with instrument training in World War 2 resulted, by the end of the war, in Link delivering 6271 Link Trainers to the Army and 1045 to the Navy.

35 foreign countries also used the Link Trainer. Although aviation cadets flew various trainer aircraft, virtually all took initial blind-flying instruction in the Link.

The Apollo Simulator with its control panel to the side, used for astronaut training in the late 1960s prior to the first landing on the Moon.

By the end of the war, Ed Link was secure in his business and quite wealthy. His firm had played a key role in the massive scale pilot training that took place from 1942 to 1945. It was a record that he could be proud of. In all, over 10000 Link Trainers were delivered during that time.

The Apollo Simulator.

The Link continued in its pilot training role right up through the Korean War and into the Vietnam era. In the 1960s, Link was engaged by NASA to build rocketry simulators for the Apollo program, which landed the men on the Moon.

Modern Link aviation trainer system.

Today, Link’s company is a part of L3, one of the largest defense and engineering companies in the world. Simulators have gone digital with full-motion hydraulic lifts that turn and twist and feature life size, exact replicas of each specific model of airplane — 747-400 simulators, 737-800 simulators and so forth.