The First Flight Simulators

The first flight simulators came way before computers were available. The Link Trainer was a mechanical simulator used during World War II! Tom Scott gives us an opportunity to look inside the "blue box" that new pilots used for practice instead of planes during the war. It looks a bit like the mechanical kid's rides you see at grocery stores, and it is entirely mechanical. The Link Trainer would move according to how the trainee worked the controls, and instructors could change the machine's response to simulate different weather conditions. It's altogether a really cool piece of technology for its time, and even cooler as an antique.