1943 Pre-Computer Avionics and Aircraft Navigation LINK TRAINER Aeronautics History Air Force Navy
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- Опубликовано: 20 сен 2024
- Original Film 1943, Today we explore some Pre-Computer Avionics and Aircraft Navigation technology, and see the LINK TRAINER being used for pilot training. No digital computers here, but some good Aeronautics History Film title Instrumentation Flying and Landing, How pilots were trained to fly and land by instrumentation, back in 1940's. Shows the Link Trainer device invented by Edwin Link in the late 1920's. Brief intro Prologue, then the 11 minute original film from about 1943, (02:22) and 30 second vintage air force recruiting advertisement aimed at female recruits. Fascinating analog instrumentation, with great narration describing the instruments on the pilot's control panel, including Altimeter, Artificial Horizon Indicator, Radio Compass, Airplane Fuel, Runway Beacon Locator, and basic use of the Link Trainer, aka "Blue Box." Hope you enjoy this vintage glimpse into the past. Comments are welcome.
Compiled for educational and historical purposes. Computer History Archives Project (CHAP)
For more information about the Link Trainer and Edwin Link, see:
NAVAL AIR STATION FORT LAUDERDALE MUSEUM
www.nasflmuseu...
National Museum of U.S. Air Force
www.nationalmu...
The Life of Edwin Link
digitalproject...
* * Restoration of WW2 film "Instrumentation Flying and Landing" film (WWII 1-531)
Courtesy of Speakeasy Archives
www.laserfilml...
My "link trainer" as a kid in the mid-late 60's was a cardboard box I could fit in, and with a pencil drew circles to represent gauges not knowing what they were, and a stick from a tree branch was my yoke. My imagination filled in the rest. Great times!
When I was a teenager in the early 1950's, I joined the local CAP unit as a "Cadet". They had a Link Trainer at the local airport and I got to "fly" it several times. What fun for an aviation-crazed boy.
Reminds me of those little rides outside of the grocery stores when I was young. Horses and jets I remember.
The picture that announces this video shows a lady Airman with three stripes that were not worn until after the Air Force separated from the Army in 1947.
Yes, very true. The recruitment spot film piece at the end is a later date than the main film by a few years. Good catch!
I was going to comment on this as well. She's a Buck Sergent. Then it changed to a Senior Airmen without the star when I served.
And… yes there was a computer pre WWII
I had the opportunity to To filing trainer years ago at the Willow run airport museum.
Before it burned download don't know if there's got another one. After the fire.
But it was a totally different experience. But it was totally different experience in the trainer. Then it wasn't a real flight.
Yes I was about to say the same.
Cool video. I’ve seen these trainers in many museums around here in CA.
Yes, brings back memories. I sweated in one of those boxes, a Link C-3, for 20hrs towards my instrument rating in 1980. This at "American Flyers" which, at that time, was still on Ardmore Municipal airport (K)ADM. If I dechiper his signature correctly, my instructor was a Mr Martin.
Of course, the layout of the panel was the now standard "Sixpack" with the "more" modern VOR, ILS and ADF gauges. Making me make "Wingtip Curves" around a VOR was Mr Martin greatest joy.
Thank you for the great historical feedback as someone who actually used the Link trainer. Watching the original footage did make me wonder how comfortable or uncomfortable the little trainer was, and without A/C back in the day, I bet it did get quite hot. A type of training one doesn't soon forget. Thanks again! ~ VK
Thanks for sharing 👍 very interesting. I wonder how the training is done these days 🤔
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Remember, that was 40years ago, so I don't recall the specifics anymore. But I'm sure the "wings" and "tailfeathers" were gone. But the pneumatic system was still there, so it moved "realistically". And with the hood closed, it was a bit claustrofobic. And sweating? It was called the sweatbox for a good reason!! Soon afterwards, the management of AF changed, as well as the simulators: roll in the Frasca's!! But it was good fun
Nowadays, I'm still current, flying and teaching, it is all computers with realistic outside visuals etc. A much better teaching experience.
For the day, it was a excellent teaching tool.
Been there and sweated a lot learning good instrument procedures. Saved my life many times. The original Link in the hands of a good instructor was an awesome learning tool.
Thanks for sharing, sounds like some good memories. ~ Victor, CHAP
And if the Instructor wasn't watching you could fall of the edge of the World. (Well, the tracker could fall of the table)😊
I was lucky enough to get to use one at the Gary Airport in the late 50's
When I was learning out of KADS, I poked my head in another school when I was leaving one day. They had a fully functional Link trainer in their lobby. Dude treated me to a 15 minute "lesson' in it. Very, very cool.
I asked him if they used it in their curriculum and he said they didn't (this was before PCATD but there were analog desktop instrument trainers). "So what do you use it for?" I asked . "To get guys like you in the door." 😂
Great Video! I worked for Singer-Link and several other simulator companies from 1981 to 2018 when I retired from Lockheed Martin. During those 37 years I worked as an engineer and project manager on flight simulators. I'm amazed at the technology advancements I saw during that time. Mr. Link was clearly a brilliant man, especially since he made those original blue boxes work using organ pumps and basic electronics.
Hi @rvrrunner, glad you enjoyed it! Yes, Mr. Link has quite a fascinating history, well beyond what this little film shows. ~ Victor
I used the Link Trainer in 1991 for pilot aptitude assessment. That was in Toronto.
I spent many training hours inside these boxes, sometimes frustrating until you got it right and from 50 years in the future I thank all my instructors that gave me their time and endless patience in order to make a safe pilot out of me.
I need this level of clear headed explanation on the rest of life problems, please xD
I did do some time in a Link trainer when I was in South America, in 1983 they still managed to have it working
That must have been quite an experience! And a rare one these days. Thanks for your feedback!
I remember when all the women in the service looked just like this young lady. I married two of them. Not at the same time, of course.
When I went through US Army flight school our UH-1 instrument simulator was made by Singer-Link (IERW 86-41)
My high school had a surplus one of these, complete and fully functional. It was fun to play with, and fly under the ‘hood’. A shame that there wasn’t any formal training. But we did have a ground school class.
Fascinating, about what year was that?
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Early 70’s.
Very interesting for us aviation+history enthusiasts, many thanks, Keep Up The Good Work ! 🖖🤩👍
Hi @philpeko1796, Thank you. Your kind feedback is appreciated! ~ CHAP
USN, 68-74, ETR-2, NAS Miramar 70-74. I was a GCA maintainence tech, maintained GCA and TACAN. I have never understood why GCA was not more popular in the civilian world. More accurate, more dependable, and of course the comforting voice of a controller. Of course you had to PAY them, and we couldn't have THAT!!
"Do not acknowledge further transmissions, begin descent. On glide path...on course...on glide path...going slightly below glide path, come left heading 121...coming up, and on glide path...on course...over landing threshold, on centerline, GCA standing by..." Ah, memories!
Hi @fourfortyroadrunner6701, Thank you for the great feedback and history info! - I had to look these up myself:
GCA = “Ground-controlled approach,“ a ground observer monitors the course and descent angle of an aircraft via radar, enables pilots to land under extremely adverse weather conditions. TACAN = “TACtical Air Navigation,” a military UHF navigation aid operating around 1000 MHz. ~ Victor, CHAP
Air Marshall Robert Leckie (wartime RAF Chief of Staff) said "The Luftwaffe met its Waterloo on all the training fields of the free world where there was a battery of Link Trainers".
Hi @nickdanger3802, that is an interesting and thought provoking quote! Thank you. ~
My dad ran a link trainer when he was in bomber command during the war, there is one at the Bull creek RAF museum in Perth West Australia. Think it is in working order.
Hi @colinsouthall2411, that sounds very interesting about your dad running a link trainer. Very cool. Interesting that there is one in Perth too. There aren't many left now. Thanks for your feedback! VK
Crazy as it seems modern planes still use the ILS for landing, a technology from the late 1930’s
I actually racked up about 20 hours in one in the early 1980’s working toward my instrument rating.
20 hours! That must have been a record of some kind! Pretty impressive. :)
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Actually, it was standard. You needed a minimum of 40 hours of actual or simulated instrument flying, 20 of which could be in an approved simulator, which the Link was.
That makes sense, but how many hours do you typically do in one continuous stretch?
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Most “lessons” are 1-1.5 hours of flying or simulator time.
The University of Illinois Institute of Aviation had at least one of these (I think maybe two or three) in operation back when I learned to fly in 1982. Those were the days. Parkland College now runs the program. I wonder if they are still there
Please correct the thumbnail. The United States Air Force was established in 1947 with distinctive enlisted rank insignia. The female buck sergeant on the left of the thumbnail is clearly wearing the rank of a USAF E4 - NOT the insignia of a USAAF sergeant.
Yes, you are correct. The Link trainer film is about 1943, and the woman USAF E4 promo film clip is a few years later. The Air Force became its own branch of the service and they beefed up recruitment in the late 1940's. I think that we tried to clarify that in the "description" section. Good point though. Thanks very much.
They clarified that homie
I never flew a Link trainer, but did get to train instrument procedures in simulators that actually plotted the flight track on paper. Good days long gone.
Dne a few hours in the old Link box of terror!😂👍
06:18
“No visual reference of the field” might not be true even with the modern instrument landing rules, but still interesting to watch the earliest innovation
I know it’s a real and serious device representative of that era, but it looks like one of those rides in front of the supermarket back in the day. 😁
As demonstrated, a decent flight computer is very important especially when flying at high supersonic speed or even hypersonic flight speed, naturally you gotta understand the hardware limitations back in the 1940s, up to early 60s which you were limited to whatever computer technology were available during that time.
@Dr_Mario2007, yes, exactly so! Thanks. : )
I have logged time in this Link trainer
Damn! is sad but I did my Instruments rating on one of this 25 years ago! Luckily for me Flight Safety has a little more better ones!
Link GAT II
CORDIC FTW!
Got 20 hours in a Link GAT1 in 1988 toward my instrument rating.
Hi @ClausB252, Very cool! GAT = "General Aviation Trainer" introduced by Link in the early 1960s to meet market demands for training pilots for small aircraft. It was Link's first use of transistorized electronics.
Training plane looks a bit like something from Wallace and Gromit
Well, they already feel for it.
Tromendos technically of the days. …even today. It works. 2024.
Now? CAT III you just let the autopilot land the plane.
Cool simulator.
Yes, and the history books say Link's first customers were not the military, but amusement parks. Kids loved it too! I'd drop a nickel in the slot just for fun if I could. : )
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Ha ha. Yeah, it would make a fortune.
I'd definately have a go.
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject This simulator hardware was basically an analogue computer made from orchestrion parts, operated by compressed air instead of electricity. Interesting is that the plotter was free rolling on the map, so it only had a relative position and was mechanically quite similar like the early "turtle" drawing robot that was used to demonstrate the LOGO programming language.
Hi @cyberyogicowindler2448, good info. Thank you!
Meet the grandfather of MSFS2020 😂
Whew! High work load, sparse standards and lots of uncertainty. No thanks.
When that was all there was you made it work. It was not all that long ago.... before widespread usage of GPS and or ILS in general aviation aircraft, that we were doing pretty much the same thing. I am not a pilot but a hard core simmer, you could say. When I started simming, in GA aircraft, it was pretty much all VOR navigating....procedure turns....radials....then an ILS if you were lucky.