A working flight simulator, no computers necessary

There are only a few working Link Trainers left in the world: but before microprocessors, before display screnes, half a million pilots learned the basics of instrument flying inside one. More: www.most.org/e...
Edited by Michelle Martin, / @onthecrux
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[@TomScottGo]

As a heads up, MOST's Link Trainer is usually only open to the public during special events! But it's a lovely museum, and I'm really thankful to all the team who helped put this video together.

[@king_83227]

sick

[@obamamii2042]

hi tom scott

[@em-rv8rh]

cool!

[@xaz21]

Shh

[@nayrb2]

Bruh you were in syracuse NY???? Damn I wish I would’ve visited there. Love your videos Tom!

[@arthuralford]

The Link was made to teach pilots how to rely on instruments while flying instead of their own senses. With no visual reference, in a seat that moves and causes your sense of balance and direction to often be faulty, you are forced to look at the instrument panel and rely on what you see to fly properly. And, it worked.

[@Airbournjack]

Yep when you get lost or go into a spin, always trust the instruments. It is just to bad that the instruments don't exist on this anymore.

[@TeeBar420]

They could have replaced the radium dials with some much less spicy tritium

[@BrightyLighty_]

@@TeeBar420 You wanna know what's even less spicy then tritium? STRONTIUM ALUMINATE

[@fanficfan8599]

Oh so that's what they close the top for makes more sense now thank you

[@misterscottintheway]

@@TeeBar420 or they could just use lights. No radiation necessary

[@ravingcyclist624]

I actually flew one of these. My brother-in-law was chief pilot for Southern Airways which used them. It had a "spider" connected to it. That was a small wheel with ink on it that ran across a map so they could see where you were traveling. Wind direction and speed were controllable. They put me in a hurricane. They said I ended up hundreds of miles off course and 60 feet under ground. 🙂

[@official-obama]

ok! wow!

[@jwalster9412]

"they said I ended up 100s of miles off course and 60 feet underground." so in other words, your plane became a bright light on the ground?

[@Hevlikn]

so you went below the hard deck?

[@jeremywp123]

@@Hevlikn he crashed

[@PiikachUwU_OSRS]

6 feet would have been fine

[@robertlandrum1971]

The best thing about this simulator for WW2 pilots was that it forced you to rely more on your instruments to travel than relying on sight, which can be rendered moot by nighttime or bad weather.

[@mghemke]

Came here to say just that. It's a fantastic instrument/navigation trainer. I do think flying the Link trainer without instruments would be about as educational as flying a real aircraft without instruments. I also find it very interesting that pipe organs were the "high technology" of the day... and inspired this new application.

[@mastershooter64]

I feel like it'd be easier to rely on your instruments rather than your sight because they're much more accurate and precise

[@stephen9894]

@@mastershooter64 you say that, until you try and fly with just the instruments. It's hard.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

This simulator was used strictly FOR instrument training. Obviously, as there was no visual representation.

[@sidvanhound]

True but relying on instruments seems to be what brought down Flight 19.

[@johnmcadon4248]

One overlooked benefit of the trainer was that those candidates who would not actually become good pilots could be more quickly and inexpensively be eliminated and reassigned to another unit.

[@Nupetiet]

Students who failed to qualify on the Link Trainer were subsequently tested on the Horse Simulator

[@skylined5534]

@@Nupetiet And if they failed the horse simulator then they got to try out for the cannon fodder simulator.

[@moolahn8773]

@@skylined5534 And if they failed that they made them generals.

[@Rustie_za]

@@moolahn8773 You understand Russian doctrine.

[@kamalmanzukie]

that's an excellent observation

[@SirPembertonS.Crevalius]

Piece is a lot more complicated than it seems. It genuinely looks like a 25 cent storefront ride, but it has many more components that make up a plane.

[@ijemand5672]

Dude what the hell is your profile picture

[@shinren_]

@@ijemand5672 inflation kink bro 😔😔

[@BAWSACK2000]

Bome soux

[@kr19569]

Are you knighted as well?

[@GuyNamedSean]

Well, like they said, it did sort of start out that way. I assume the realistically accurate instrumentation was something added later, just because it would be weird to have that level of detail on something that wasn't originally actually being used to train pilots.

[@davidshi451]

I love the fact that Tom has *actually* flown blind, before getting in the Link Trainer

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

Tom Scott has flown planes far more than most people have, yet it's this little blue box that gets him.

[@datura_boof]

Link?

[@WiresDawson]

Trainer

[@diggysoze2897]

@@datura_boof sauce?

[@datura_boof]

@@diggysoze2897 find it and share

[@johnbeauvais3159]

There’s a story, and of course the accuracy is in question but it goes like this “One student got hopelessly lost, he was running out of fuel and told to follow his checklist, the final step of which was to bail out of the aircraft. He promptly opened the canopy and leap out, attempting to clear the propwash so he wouldn’t be bounced against the fuselage. Instead of parachuting to safety he broke an ankle, consequences of immersive flight simulation”

[@TheStavveers]

Probably exaggerated of course, but you can sort of imagine a literal type of chap following the checklist to a T, and then being disoriented by the light and rush of blood and managing to break an ankle. If they ever did use these for escape drills it would have ended like that more than once for sure.

[@jmackmcneill]

They ordered him to follow the checklist to the letter - he followed the checklist to the letter. That isn't simulator immersion, that is military training: you do EXACTLY what you are told, and trust the instructor to tell you exactly the right thing to do.

[@coriscotupi]

There's another story of a flight instructor who would show his trust in his open-cockpit biplane student pilots by unscrewing his control stick and throwing it overboard over the airfield, effectively trusting his life on the student's ability to land. One student, being aware of that, hid an extra control stick in the cockpit during the preflight. When the time came, the instructor unscrewed his stick and tapped the student's shoulder. When the student looked back, the instructor showed him the stick, waived it around in the air and threw it overboard. The student gave him a "thumbs up", grabbed the (extra) stick, waived it around in the air and threw it overboard, as if following the instruction to the "T". Word has it that the instructor never did the stunt again.

[@TheIronArmenianakaGIHaigs]

I saw one of these at the De Havilland Aircraft Museum, such a neat piece of kit. Their one is in working order too :D

[@GiorgioChiellini723]

Is it open to the public like this one in the vid?

[@psoma_brufd]

@@GiorgioChiellini723 not certain, but its a great little museum connected to the plane production company.

[@teaandmedals]

Breznett aviation museum also has one that is/was recently working. There is one at Robertsbridge Aviation Museum but there was a health and safety issue regarding radiation from the Luminous paint so people can't sit in it. As mentioned there is also another Link trainer at the De Havilland Museum.

[@samholdsworth420]

I just realized it says the iron Armenian I thought it always said the iron American. SUS BRUH 🤔

[@psoma_brufd]

@@GiorgioChiellini723 I checked the website and yes, you can use it, it's a separate ticket on their website but includes admission in the ticket itself.

[@americansmark]

I trained on one of these at an Air Show back in high school. Hey brought it out to the airpark and let us all have a go. it really got me into flying. 17 years later, I am working on my private pilot's certificate and fly regularly in MSFS20 through VATSIM. Such a cool experience.

[@qualitycontent4335]

Cool.

[@Vexcenot]

Cool.

[@nathanschimke7309]

Cool.

[@Ramzi1944]

Cool

[@urigeheadmot1196]

Cool.

[@StarshadowMelody]

"I'm gonna look back on the footage for this and realize, that I've just been spinning all this time." - Someone who was, in fact, spinning, the whole time.

[@quillmaurer6563]

As basic as everything else seems, that yaw system with bellows driving cranks seems way more sophisticated - you'd think electric motor control at the time would have been good enough to provide a simpler yaw drive (keeping the bellows for the pitch/roll). But it's really cool to watch, has a very steampunk look to it.

[@wolfgangmcq]

Since Link was experienced with pipe organs and pneumatics, this may just be a case of "do what you know will work"---that mechanism looks very similar to the sort of pneumatic motor a player piano uses to advance and rewind the roll.

[@andrewharrison8436]

The designer's experience was from his father working on pipe organs (about 1:20 in the video). His skill set was mechanical so that's how he built it. If the design works don't change it - particularly as those capable of improving it were needed for other military developments.

[@MultiPetercool]

@@wolfgangmcq You beat me to it! Link is considered a legend among those of us who collect player pianos and other mechanical musical instruments. He was also responsible for a number of innovations in deep-sea diving.

[@NoSpam1891]

In those days that would have been easier than speed control of electric motors.

[@davidmfr3y]

Now that Tom's flown a plane blind, he takes on the ultimate challenge: Flying a not-plane blind

[@brrrrrr]

Flying a not-plane that wants to be a plane blind*

[@Complete_Stranger7050]

*Flying a Blind Plane not

[@WilliamPitcher]

In the 1980s, I considered becoming a Canadian military pilot and their selection process involved having to spend time in a trainer very much like this one. There was a diorama on a curved wall with an horizon and other features.

[@WilliamPitcher]

@@martinamaggioni8124 No displays -- just a painted wall. I don't think there were any gauges (maybe an artificial horizon). I think the only controls were a stick and rudder peddles, but there might have been others we didn't have to use on the day. It was even more of a box than the one in this video and didn't have the fancy paint job. It also didn't have the covered canopy the Link trainer has.

[@korakys]

The Monkey Box.

[@urigeheadmot1196]

The Monkey Box.

[@kevinmcneill468]

Me too, but in the late 60's and you got to shoot at dots on the wall.

[@NathanMatthews.]

Why didn't you go ahead and join the military? Would've been awesome

[@geoffeg]

There's a guy restoring a link trainer in Urbana, Ohio at the Champaign Aviation Museum. I got to test it out a few weeks ago. I was impressed by how smooth it was, it really did feel disorienting in the same way flying on instruments in the clouds is.

[@taten007]

Curious, what’s the best way to start flying? I’ve been thinking about being a pilot for awhile now but I’m not sure where to start. I study child psychology at university currently.

[@Mr.Anders0n_]

@@taten007 I'm not a pilot, but if you want a realistic simulation at home and have some money to spend, you can get this setup: powerful pc + X-Plane (simulator) + HOTAS + VR headset + 1000s of hours. X-Plane isn't a video game, it's the most realistic consumer simulator. You can even hook it up to paid service where you talk real people as airport air controllers (that's a necessary part of pilot training). Also, if you have even more free time, you can take dive into DCS World. This is a serious jet fighter simulator (again not a simple video game). You'll need to spend hours reading real jet fighters manuals just to learn how to get your plane off the ground. Microsoft Simulator has the best visuals by far, but according to pilots, it's the least realistic.

[@fortnite-kq7ok]

@@Mr.Anders0n_ also a yaw 2 when it releases

[@EpicWolverine]

Wait what. I thought you made a typo and meant Urbana, Illinois but there really is a Champaign Aviation Museum in Urbana, Ohio.

[@thewiseturtle]

I wonder if my dad worked with that particular one. He was at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in the late 60's (I was even born on the base there!) and worked for the flight simulation department.

[@aDifferentJT]

I initially thought this’d be about something like the space shuttle simulator, where they had electronics but no realistic computer graphics so they put an analogue video camera on a robot arm above a miniature scale model of the terrain around KSC and piped the feed to the screens in the simulator so that when the astronauts moved the controls the image they’d see would be accurate.

[@bbgun061]

They used the same TV camera system for Gemini and Apollo, to train rendezvous, docking, and landing on the Moon.

[@daydodog]

That's also really cool

[@johnlucas6683]

That's awesome.

[@ziginox]

Tom even points out the terrain map while visiting the Space & Rocket Center over on Objectivity!

[@clonkex]

I read that as Kerbal Space Centre and didn't think twice.

[@DrRusty5]

My mind immediately jumps to think of the RAF Langham "Langham Dome" - which was WWII virtual reality trainer for antiaircraft gunners. Something quite remarkable and sophisticated for its time.

[@JdeBP]

I was reminded of the Torpedo Trainer at HMS Jackdaw. Imagine Tom Scott on that, in its heyday!

[@johnglenn30csardas]

I flew one as a Cub Scout in the ‘60s. My Den Mother’s family had one in her house! One of the greatest thrills of my childhood.

[@PhillChapman]

We had a Link trainer at my old ATC squadron and was taught to fly by instruments on it. It was always fun to see how the course drawn by the plotter compared to what you were trying to fly, especially in “bad weather”.

[@jeffjones3581]

me to i was in the ATC i spent lot of hours in it

[@garymorris7454]

Same for me! I couldn’t stay straight at all!

[@FozzyBBear]

Same. Although I could maintain altitude and level flight for the half hour or so of "flight" time I got, and could make turns as directed, I didn't have the training to even attempt navigation.

[@professor1972]

As a technician, I was brought in to help maintain an ATC squadron's Link trainer. In spite of the very old and unreliable thyratron valves, the biggest problems were caused by perished bellows. Oh, and we still had the instruments in it as well.

[@Baja555b]

These were designed in Binghamton, NY ( hour south of where this vid was filmed) and possibly manufactured there as well. Years back I was volunteering a museum collection called tech works which has several trainers from different eras as well as a good portion of the engineering documentation on them. I think a good portion is on their web site if your interested. Also Tom, I’m impressed you did as well as you with out instruments.

[@RussellNelson]

I remember driving past Link on I-81. Disappointed when it ceased to be Link.

[@danielf1506]

They used to have a replica at Binghamton airport with a little exhibit

[@epicgriffin65]

Yes!! I've volunteered there before COVID and Susan was always showing these off. Great place and cool people, especially for an engineering student such as myself. My favorite was the self playing piano. If anyone is ever in Binghamton, definitely visit Techworks if you like old tech.

[@Pastronomer69]

They have one of these in Duxford too. It always amuses me to see them, stepping out of a multi-million pound full motion sim at work seeing where flight training has come from

[@erikkennedy]

Interesting that he went all the way to Syracuse, then, if he could have just gone to Duxford! Must have other filming to do in the US.

[@Pastronomer69]

@@erikkennedy he does seem to do videos in batches. The one in Duxford is static though, I'm sure it's restored beautifully but I doubt it works.

[@robboltwood]

@@Pastronomer69 exactly the same at the Ansett sims in Melbourne Australia

[@Valisk]

I'm glad you posted this - I was sure I'd seen one there, but couldn't remember. Is it in the American hangar?

[@Pastronomer69]

@@Valisk yep that's it! Next to the Phantom as of a few months ago when I last visited

[@ashurean]

Mechanical tech is so cool, I know computers can do all of this and more in a smaller package but these things are still marvelous

[@maxcue8234]

Way back in the 70’s I was it the cadets Air Training Corp (Thetford 1109 Sqd) in the UK and we had a Link Trainer. Spent some crazy and enjoyable times in it understanding the principles of instrument flying. Fast forward to the present, I’m now a Captain working for a commercial airline. The link trainer got me hooked with flying.

[@10ON10]

*If this was in an amusement park the tickets would surely be sold out! What an incredible piece of engineering considering the timeframe...*

[@BAWSACK2000]

Bome soux

[@glenngriffon8032]

I'd take a ride in it. Course it being all analog is very cool but also probably means that maintaining it is a chore.

[@darin7553]

What do you mean by timeframe? This is incredible period

[@daslynnter9841]

@@glenngriffon8032 a modern one wouldnt need to be analog, could very easily be done with computers and electric motors

[@LARAUJO_0]

*bold*

[@Zerbey]

Wonder how many lives this saved, training for night flying is extremely dangerous in any era but during WW2 I can't even imagine! The Battle of Britain museum has a Spitfire trainer but it's just a static device to allow pilots to become familiar with the controls.

[@owensmith7530]

Spitfires were not night fighters, they only flew in daylight.

[@CurseTheDarkness]

Fog or thick clouds may as well be night.

[@kevinpeirson4692]

Ha, I could hear the sound from the ball machine in the background and knew where you were immediately. We have a family membership and bring our kiddo there a lot in the winter. I have never actually seen the trainer in action. Thanks for the awesome video!

[@breg5993]

There's one like that in the Museum of Science in Boston; I thought of the same thing when I heard it!

[@neillthornton1149]

Link Aviation lives on to this day, as part of CAE USA. Still working on modeling and simulation systems for the military!

[@jaydugger3291]

I work there now. Down the hall from my desk, just past the VR lab, stands one of these Blue Box trainers.

[@Sir_Ross]

Just started working here and my dad worked here when it was L3 Link Systems a decade ago. We’ve got one in the front lobby of the main office building!

[@JBrinx18]

@@Sir_Ross you think they took out the radium paint? I work there too

[@Sir_Ross]

@@JBrinx18 I sure hope so

[@mikefochtman7164]

Should go north to Camden NY. They have a 'wooden boat museum' there. At one time they had a wooden flight trainer that was essentially a one-legged hydrofoil that was towed behind a speedboat. The student pilot would sit in the top of it and control the underwater surfaces with a 'stick'. They could learn the basics of maintaining level 'flying' above the surface of the water and banking left and right to turn. Bit of a precursor to this flight trainer. I believe it was also a 'Link' trainer.

[@CableFlame]

My grandfather taught people how to instrument fly on one of these Link Trainers during WWII. He still had his "flight book" from back in the day, where he had logged over 1,000 flight hours in one! He was quite proud of it & used to talk about it often. (I wish he was still with us so I could send him this video.)

[@SteelSkin667]

That thing deserves to be refitted with working instruments, perhaps replicas of the original ones - using safer paints of course.

[@thetalantonx]

Tom's prescience shows its one truly limiting quirk: he only knows what will happen when it comes to looking silly on camera. Seriously though, awesome video and well done!

[@neilcreek]

I was extremely fortunate to have been able to have a "flight" in one of these recently. The volunteers at the Nhill Aviation Heritage Centre in Victoria, Australia have a working Link trainer that they have restored, including replacing all the instruments with working ones. They even had the map table which had a robotic shuttle of sorts that when working (this part had yet to be restored to a working state) would track with the pilot's movements over a map, drawing the course taken on the map with a wax pencil. Absolutely remarkable for a completely analogue system!

[@Kyuschi]

i saw one of these in a ww2 training film i was watching a few months ago and immediately thought "that's a brilliant idea" with just the simple calculations for each gage you have everything you need to train not only on bad weather or night time flying, but it was a US navy film so even just regular navigation at sea when your only landmark is water.

[@derwoodbowen5954]

I actually got a chance to "fly" one of those when I was young. My father was in the USAF and we got a day at a pilot training facility. Had a great time.

[@IgnatianMystic]

One of the most brilliant things about it is that the sound of the motors and compressors running would very closely mimic the sound of a plane engine as heard from within the cockpit, making the experience that much more realistic. IMHO, actually _feeling_ like you were in a plane would make the transition from simulator to actual aircraft considerably more seamless in terms of being able to adapt.

[@r4microds]

Can we just take a moment to admire the fact that in the opening clip, that's MSFS, a personal use, non commercial flight sim, in the background with unofficial helicopters running. ;)

[@2VeryIceyGaming]

MOST's MSFS machinery is really freaking cool if you ever get a chance to go

[@tsm688]

microsoft flight simulator is noncommercial? really?

[@athompso99]

My grandfather, a radar operator in Scotland during WWII, remembers the flight line personnel getting so annoyed at his criticisms of poor landings that they dared him to try and land a plane in one of these things. The air-side crew were shocked at how beautifully he managed to "land"... with the minor exception of grandpa having "landed" at 100ft below ground level! He says he mostly shut up about bad landings after that :-).

[@cadam4272]

Good to see Binghamton being represented. This area has a rich history for industry, like Endicott-Johnson and where IBM was founded.

[@mutated__donkey5840]

We made most of the boots until Vietnam, had world class workers rights and taught millions of pilots nevertheless spiedies but nobody mentions us 😭

[@douggale5962]

The somatogravic illusion is s utterly convincing, it is the reason we even have IFR and VFR (I for Instrument, V for visual flight rules). Any dummy can watch the instruments, instrument rating means you are convinced that the instruments are correct, and that your vestibular system (sense of balance) is incorrect. Human orientation senses are very ambiguous, it needs input from other sources to disambiguate it. A subtle cue can be all you need to reinterpret your senses to tell you that your orientation is changing badly.

[@CB-rv2lj]

wild.

[@MikkoRantalainen]

And the hardest part is figuring out which instrument has failed when your vestibular system cannot be trusted and the instruments show readings that do not cross correlate with all the instruments. I think simulator like this must have been a good training aid for that.

[@Yotanido]

@@MikkoRantalainen I think that is the most important part. When instruments fail, figure out which systems are likely at fault, and ignore the instruments that failed. If you lose static pressure, you have to know that... actually, you're probably screwed without visibility in that case... (And without more modern instruments like GPS) Anyway, you have to know that if you lose dynamic pressure, that your air speed won't be correct, for example. Personally, I didn't find flying without visibility as disorientating as everyone claimed, but I suppose I knew what to expect. When I put on the hood, I entirely focused on the instruments, and made sure to scan them properly. Mind you, my CFI never actually told me to do any of that, just to fly the plane and change headings as he told me...

[@YourMJK]

Reminds of that Russian passenger plane where one of the pilots let his kid take the controls for a second during the night. He banked too hard and the plane lost control. Pilots took over and tried to correct it, but they were disoriented and didn't trust their instruments. They were at cruising altitude and had lots of time to correct it. Had they not even touched the controls, the plane would have recovered by itself! But instead they tried to control it and the reconstruction shows how the plane was spinning like crazy when they thought, they'd recovered it. Ultimately they crashed killing all people on board. EDIT: It was Aeroflot Flight 593, there's an animation + cockpit audio on KZbin.

[@thewiseturtle]

@@YourMJK Damn.

[@ciggy_]

Gotta love that even though it was made during wartime they still took the time to paint it like the real American trainer aircraft

[@2dragonfire514]

old analog devices like this always astonish me! not only are the designs super complex, but the manufacturing usually is too. I'm just glad that I live in an era of computers where this stuff is much more simple.

[@tsm688]

They still make stuff like this, just computer powered.

[@mytube001]

Surely someone could get them a new set of working instruments! Doesn't have to be 1930s vintage. Modern instruments have barely changed.

[@mikefochtman7164]

Agree. Just an older vacuum powered artificial horizon, turn-bank indicator, and a heading indicator would be great. Then you could actually try your hand at flying 'straight and level' vs flying some specific route. Small cockpit light or dial light and you're "off into the wild blue yonder..."

[@allangibson2408]

The Altimeter, Airspeed indicator and vertical speed indicator need specific modifications to work. Not impossible but not exactly simple.

[@ReasonsWhy1]

@@allangibson2408 because the dynamic and static pressure ports/pitot tubes used to connect directly to the instruments via pipe didnt they? now it's just to a box next the the tubes/ports

[@allangibson2408]

@@ReasonsWhy1 It’s a question of replicating the pressures - or building instruments that emulate the indications correctly.

[@DrFod]

Removing the old instruments was really unnecessary. Radium is an alpha emitter and the particles wouldn't even get through the glass.

[@eduardopupucon]

*in the middle of a graveyard spiral* Tom: "i feel like i'm quite level!"

[@pavarottiaardvark3431]

I like the little touch that it's even an era appropriate color! Every bit of realism helps!

[@UncleKennysPlace]

My airport had one of these 60+ years ago, still operational. I got to sit in it as a child, don't remember anything! But it's similar to the FAA's disorientation apparatus, which I did have a chance to sample (and kept my lunch inside, thank you!)

[@HutchCA]

Radium instrument dials are NOT "Highly Radioactive", they are mildly radioactive at best, and sealed in an instrument they are completely harmless behind glass.

[@tsm688]

brand new radium paint is safe (except to the poor souls who had to paint with it). 80 year old radium paint is liable to flake and powder. You might inhale or ingest some, which is bad.

[@gamezers]

And you also need to take into account that kids go in this simulator every day

[@andlever2004]

You can always tell when someone is talking out of their ass when they make a claim without something for comparison or a control

[@_Beamish]

Dousing yourself in petrol and standing next to a child with a box of matches is also harmless, you ACKCHUALLY sunless fool. Plant die in the conditions you live in

[@andlever2004]

@@_Beamish damn I thought you actually had some knowledge of radiation but now I see you are clueless.. ill say something you understand.. plant get stupider if it interacts with you

[@DickzLand]

As a double Ace Airscout, and advancced high school student, 1947, I was one of the instructors for dozens of pilots who trained on our Link Trainer. I vividly remember using the tracker and having pilots fly paterns, from takeoff to landing. Yes, our High School was unusual, the principal an enthusaistic pilot and got the school board to have the Link Trainer installed. Sad the instruments do not work, students lived by the aritificial horizon and altimiter.

[@1pcfred]

Yes but they all died from horrible radiation! Why just sitting in one of those things is ground zero. The horror!

[@onemansvoice9132]

so your over 75 years old

[@tsm688]

@@1pcfred Brand-new radium paint is fine when it just sits there (except for the people who died manufacturing and painting it of course). 60 year old radium paint flakes and becomes dust and becomes a genuine hazard - you don't want it on or in you. It must have been a lot cheaper to take the instruments out than to clean or replace them.

[@1pcfred]

@@tsm688 there must be a way to stabilize the old paint. Using the appropriate protective gear, of course.

[@tsm688]

@@1pcfred appropriate thing to do is remove it, and it'll never be a problem ever again, even if some idiot kid licks it.

[@Nick-pk4sq]

My school still had a working one of these in the mid-90s! The air cadets would use it alongside doing air experience flights at Manston. On the desk next to it was a glass sheet over a map where an ink plotter would move along on your imagined course, so you could see how well you’d navigated at the end.

[@aafjeyakubu5124]

We had a very similar trainer made by Singer.

[@445fhn]

We had one of these at school (80's) albeit broken. I managed to get it working. It was linked to a map plotter that was a separate unit that moved over a fixed map.

[@rojastegulu]

1:56 "And so it's actually physically going *PTHHHHHH* "

[@iancook3996]

During part of World War 2, my father used to service these things at No 7 Service Flying Training School at RAF Collins Bay (now Norman Rogers Airport) in Kingston, Ontario. It was part of the BCATP (British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in which trainee pilots were sent away from the war zone to Canada and Australia to learn to fly ). Many years later in the 1980's , I ended up repairing and servicing a Link trainer that had belonged to the NZCAA and that had been given to the RNZAF Museum. Between just two of us, we learned how it worked and got it fully operational, along with all the original instruments, the plotting table, and the _"remote instrument box"_ and the _"crab"_ (both of which you can see at 4:05). The crab was an interesting thing, a triangular box with rounded corners that had three wheels on the bottom all of which (driven by servos and electric motors) steered the crab around the plotting table. The front wheel had a rubber tyre that brushed against an ink pad so that it drew the student's flight path on a map on the plotting table. The Link trainer was a truly awesome thing to work on - electro-pneumatic and electro-mechanical technology from a bygone age, and something I will never forget.

[@Multi-Facets]

I wasn't expecting that to be so immersive. Guess that's what made it effective.

[@jaydugger3291]

I now work at CAE-Link. We have one of these just down the hall from my desk, just past the VR Lab as a matter of fact.

[@wokohedgehogs]

Used to have one that fully worked at my old RAF Air Cadet unit in the 80’s. It was an amazing piece of equipment. Fantastic memories 😊😊

[@waterlubber]

On the topic of simulators without computer - the Apollo program had an even more incredible solution to this problem. The LEM simulator used a small-scale model of the lunar surface with cameras mounted on gantries to generate the in-cockpit views, as opposed to the computer renders of today. I believe this was also used for a number of other simulators.

[@abigailblackmon1144]

Petition to cast Tom Scott as the Doctor. He's already got his flying blue box 🤣

[@patpierce4854]

👍👍👍👍👍

[@trueriver1950]

...and furthermore travelled back to WW2 in it

[@rustyshackelford3371]

Seems like they could use a glow-in-the-dark paint to simulate the radium that had to be removed. Flying with zero visibility and no instruments, people will naturally enter a turn, thinking they are going straight.

[@refraggedbean]

I would think about how tritium would work in this, its still radioactive but is what replaced radium because it can do the same job safer

[@MrJJandJim]

@@refraggedbean if you tell anybody about anything being radioactive, they'll flip out and try to sue you or something.

[@ChucksSEADnDEAD]

@@MrJJandJim Use of tritium is still advertised on watch dials and night sights for firearms.

[@MrJJandJim]

@@ChucksSEADnDEAD that's cool! Though, I've personally not seen those advertised in my area. I'd love to get my hands on something that cool, though, eventually.

[@archiescriven6178]

If Tom's in the states i wonder if he could get on one of Iowa class battleships to look at one of the Mark 1 fire control computers.

[@cockatoo010]

Probably. They are all preserved as museum ships. It depends where he is, though, Iowa is in Los Angeles , New Jersey is in... New Jersey, Missouri is in Pearl Harbor and Wisconsin is in Virginia.

[@MrWhite2222]

Ooooo that would be awesome!

[@RussellNelson]

Syracuse is in the States. Specifically NY.

[@DeannaGilbert616]

That might be the coolest thing I learned on the Missouri a couple of years ago.

[@plokkum]

I once flew in a Link trainer about 30 years ago. It really stepped up my enthousiasm for aviation

[@alejandroviegaspalermo6497]

I'm a Retired Argentinean Navy Pilot, and I have trained in one of these. Also, when I was stationed in a helicopter squadron I hads access to a biographic book called "The Pilot Maker" that tells Edwin Link's story, a really interesting one.

[@prohunter717]

Yes, been wanting a new video on this splendid device. I remember going down the trainer rabbit hole for airplanes and looking for the most retro "simulation system". Then I come across this and how widespread and important it quickly became.

[@Chishannicon]

This is so cool! Had no idea this existed, and it turns out the one you used in this video is very close to where I live!

[@ThisOldManOfTheSea]

As an Air Training Corps cadet (UK) in the late 50s we used Link Trainers in our regular midweek evening meetings. Ours was more RAF grey-blue than blue and we had linked maps.

[@breadbxsket2]

Living in Syracuse and having watched you for years, I NEVER expected you to visit something here, but the MOST would definitely be the place to visit.

[@teaandmedals]

Breznett aviation museum (England) has a Link trainer that is/was recently working. There is one at Robertsbridge Aviation Museum (England) but there was a health and safety issue regarding radiation from the Luminous paint so people couldn't sit in it. There is another Link trainer at the De Havilland Museum.

[@netyr4554]

I "flew" the Brenzett one, probably 20 years ago but I recall that maintaining level flight on the artificial horizon was quite difficult. Brilliant little museum run by volunteers, the old boys have probably passed on but I'm sure it's still worth a visit, also the PLUTO pipeline is visible crossing ditches near Brenzett and Appledore, it runs more or less parallel to the railway line.

[@andrewmunro8830]

The pipe organ link is amazing to me - I remember reading somewhere (fact-checkers, knock yourselves out) that until the invention of the telephone exchange, the largest pipe organ would have been the largest mechanical system ever invented...

[@rin_etoware_2989]

"largest mechanical system" feels extremely vague. optical telegraph relays are mechanical, so is the water art Tom featured some episodes ago...

[@ChurchHatesTucker]

A lot of sailors would question that claim. ;)

[@casparvoncampenhausen5249]

Big clock towers? They aren't very complex, but they need a big pendulum to keep the time and a bunch of cogs to move the hands...

[@ericadler4756]

it wasn't just pipe organs but player pianos which helped with some of the systems.

[@tsm688]

pipe organs are mostly repetition of the same thing. These simulators are **sophisticated**.

[@pietschreuder5047]

As a boy, somewhere in the 60's I visited an air show in The Netherlands and they showed a Linktrainer. Boy's could line up to sit in the trainer and try a few minutes. And off course I did! It was exactly as you see in this clip. It also had the plot table to track your course. Great to see this!

[@RCJones560]

When I saw the thumbnail, I thought it looked familiar, then he said it was at the MOST and I couldn't believe he was at the museum from my childhood! Shoutout to Syracuse, hope you got try some of the great food there

[@SemiHypercube]

I like how it's dark inside I guess because they couldn't display anything like where they'd be flying

[@AsbestosMuffins]

it was originally for training for flying by instrument

[@eddiegremlin]

As much of the wwii operations were night flights there wasn’t much to see outside the aircraft…

[@shinyagumon7015]

As someone who is endlessly fascinated by analog pneumatic technology this video really tickled my fancy. Incredible what you can do with mechanics and air pressure.

[@tsm688]

the flight simulation was actually done by vaccuum tube from what I can tell. Not pure pneumatics, a little electronics too.

[@skylined5534]

That is ridiculously cool! Really nice to see a working example and in such good condition too!

[@marksebree5218]

I actually had a contract software engineer job for Link Systems a few years ago. They had one of these Blue Boxes in their lobby. Found out something else as well while working there. During the war, there was some money issues with the company, and they were barely able to keep afloat. After the war, they were able to get back on their feet. The owner of the company, when he eventually went to sell it, included an unusually provision in the contract. It listed the people that stayed with the company through the war and its troubles, and included a provision that none of those people could be fired without due cause, and that any subsequent sale of the company needed to retain that clause until all those people had voluntarily retired or passed away. THAT is an example of a CEO looking out for his people.

[@jdinhuntsvilleal4514]

It's amazing how time distorts facts. There is one, and ONLY one, purpose of the Link Trainer -- to teach pilots INSTRUMENT flying (AKA "Flying Blind".) THAT is why the hood makes it so they can't see the outside, just as if they were in instrument conditions. By the time students pilots got to this trainer, they were already flying real planes.

[@whoeveriam0iam14222]

flying without vision and without instruments explains why you were having so many issues with going in circles. the inner ear doesn't register constant rotation at the same speed and you have no other reference

[@NoSTs123]

I just wanted to write that.

[@0LoneTech]

Also a good example of how you can rotate fairly fast without noticing. This was way faster than the 15 degrees per hour some people are incredulous about.

[@erininstereo47]

Thank you so much for featuring the MOST. I have many great, fun memories of that place, and I hope you had fun too!

[@InsertFlashyName]

My grandfather was a flight trainer in WW2, incredible to see a Tom Scott video about what he did! Thank you so much

[@bynlb]

3:56 *roller coaster flashbacks intensify*

[@robnorris4770]

We had those for instrument ground school in college in the 80’s. Shortly after I started, we got Frasca simulators and the Link simulators went to museums. It’s possible this was one of them.

[@mclukehoffmann]

As a binghamton resident who vaguely knew that these existed, it’s so cool to see one in working order.

[@frenchcreekvalley]

I am 84 years old. We had one in our high school's electric shop. Left over from WWII. We got it working and had a great time with it. Had to do a lot of patching of the bellows, though.

[@SylviaRustyFae]

1:07 i love how much this looks like one of those kiddie rides outside grocery stores and the like xD

[@tsm688]

literally the inventor of them. before the idea took off he was selling the simple ones as big toys for children

[@TheElaborinth8993]

As a person that lives within 30 minutes of Syracuse, NY. I have to thank you Tom for covering the MOST museum, it’s one of our hidden treasures.

[@oliverg6864]

This is very cool. If you want to know what it was like to be a pilot in WWII, I'd recommend reading Road Dahl's autobiography "Going Solo". Even though pilots were getting training, it still wasn't easy and many died.

[@drum420]

When i was in the air cadets for teenagers, we had a canvas version of this. We greatly appreciated it and knew the history of it. But we never got to see it operate as it was such an antique that looks very fragile in person. To see this operational is an absoloute sight to behold. Many thanks for this video !!

[@jerrytugable]

The crudity of the control responses, the rumbling and jerky movements, the hissing of air leaks, were normal for a/c in the mid 20-th century. The instruments worked in the same ways. The design is clever not crude. We often used LINKs in the 70's English Air Cadets.

[@varlequin23]

As a resident of Binghamton, where the Link Trainer originated, I loved to see your take on it and how it actually worked. I remember seeing the little blue box in our airport, but I had no clue that that box and others like it helped to win World War 2 for the United States and our Allies.

[@CharlesOttman]

There's a Link organ in the Roberson Museum as well.

[@splatter_proto]

I was hoping this was at Roberson when I clicked on the thumbnail! Alas

[@chompygator3083]

That shot of the machinery when the Trainer was moving side to side(I think?) I could watch that for hours! What a cool piece of engineering!

[@oldsam775]

This is amazing! Thanks! When I was 17 or so, I went to the Naval Hospital in Taiwan (where we were living) for an examination and they told me I could not qualify for Navy or Air Farce flight training. Much later, I visited my "little" brother, a USAF KC-135 pilot and currently Delta Captain flying an Airbus, in the Southeast USA during his training. He managed to sneak me into a USAF Flight simulator (based on the T-38 IIRC) on a day when some civilian pilots were visiting. My flying had been limited to Microsoft Flight Simulator, with no significant persistence or insight. The instructor was gracious, but, I think, spotted me as a ringer fairly quickly!

[@A-Milkdromeda-Laniakea-Hominid]

Tom, please visit the simulator in the UK (if you haven't already) that uses a miniature scale landscape, onto which a video camera "flies" above it all, the signal of which is enlarged onto TV monitors (CRT not flat-screen!) in the mock cockpit. They were the next generation simulators after the blue box, I imagine, and it fooled the senses brilliantly. I crave to see it again, the lone still-working room-sized miniature landscape and accompanying 60s era video lens.

[@shinobix4925]

This, the simulation of Chamberlain declaring war, and Operation Mincemeat, have thoroughly convinced me that any slight altercation to what the Allies did would have made us badly lose the war

[@hotelmario510]

Simulation of Chamberlain declaring war?

[@jimpike7445]

"Flew" a Link trainer back in the 50's when I was about 11 years old. My dad worked in TCA's simulator department on the then new Viscount simulator. They still had some Links for instrument competency. The Viscount Simulator was the latest thing but it was fully analog with lots of mechanical parts in a large cabinet making up the "computer". Later I got to fly that simulator too.

[@k.b.tidwell]

Very interesting!

[@benjaminmiddaugh2729]

My grandfather was a trainer for one of these. Thanks for the opportunity to see how one would have looked like in action.

[@devingraves8044]

This is particularly designed to train pilots how to fly on their flight instruments only, without being able to see outside (like flying through clouds)

[@ABaumstumpf]

The radium on the dials is harmless - unless you ingest it.

[@trueriver1950]

It's actually worse than eating it if you inhale it as powder: surprisingly easy if the adhesive that holds it together is 1940's era. Wartime luminous dials tend to continuously shed small amounts into the air (and if they are behind glass you want to be very careful if the glass breaks because there will be decades of that powder released all at once)

[@tsm688]

or breathe it. guess depends how far you trust 70yr old paint

[@whatyousaidbud]

For anyone in the UK who doesn't fancy a trip to New York to see it, my late grandfather bought one as a box of bits and rebuilt it, it can be found at Rougham airfield near Bury st Edmunds in Suffolk, clocks and all! Please visit it if you can, all the chaps down there will be happy to see you!

[@francisfoster7631]

Yesterday I had the privilege of meeting this legend he came in to get some ice cream on what I assumed to be a vacation (as I live in the us) his manners were amazing and I hope he enjoyed his huckleberry ice cream thanks for making these amazing videos for us to learn from I love them!!

[@proloycodes]

what?

[@VioletScarelli]

I'd love to build one of these with a few modern touches: maybe a VR headset or some kind of system that tells you where you are so you can do day flying.

[@bradevans7935]

A modern version could easily be assembled using 'off the shelf' components. I'd use a series of servo and/or stepper motors for the motion system, a 'glass cockpit' navigation system (something like the Garmin system found on a lot of modern light aircraft - they may already have something tailored to suit), and a PC to drive the inputs and collect any data output. A VR headset defeats the original purpose of this kind of trainer - instrument (IFR) flying - but a series of flat screens could add VFR functionality. The main skills required would be to fabricate the enclosure, and to write the code that connects the various systems and makes it all work together.

[@AsbestosMuffins]

the MAPS museum in Akron Ohio has a working one of these on display as well with the map plotter you briefly mentioned

[@XxZigonxX]

the highly radioactive one?

[@AsbestosMuffins]

@@XxZigonxX I don't think theirs was built with radium dials as it was built to simulate a powered glider its been about a year since I visited

[@thatguyfromthatthing4366]

This has to be one of the absolute coolest things I never knew existed!

[@MoraleIsHigh]

I never thought the MOST would show up in a Tom Scott video. I've been there many times, and the Link Trainer is one of my favorite exhibits.