A working flight simulator, no computers necessary

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  • Опубліковано 22 гру 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 1,4 тис.

  • @TomScottGo
    @TomScottGo  2 роки тому +7344

    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
      @king_83227 2 роки тому +9

      sick

    • @junioralt25
      @junioralt25 2 роки тому +8

      hi tom scott

    • @em-rv8rh
      @em-rv8rh 2 роки тому +1

      cool!

    • @xaz21
      @xaz21 2 роки тому

      Shh

    • @Artoliann
      @Artoliann 2 роки тому +28

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

  • @arthuralford
    @arthuralford 2 роки тому +6394

    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
      @Airbournjack 2 роки тому +368

      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
      @TeeBar420 2 роки тому +276

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

    • @BrightyLighty_
      @BrightyLighty_ 2 роки тому +83

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

    • @fanficfan8599
      @fanficfan8599 2 роки тому +90

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

    • @misterscottintheway
      @misterscottintheway 2 роки тому +109

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

  • @ravingcyclist624
    @ravingcyclist624 2 роки тому +4043

    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
      @official-obama 2 роки тому +50

      ok! wow!

    • @jwalster9412
      @jwalster9412 2 роки тому +397

      "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
      @Hevlikn 2 роки тому +119

      so you went below the hard deck?

    • @jeremywp123
      @jeremywp123 2 роки тому +30

      @@Hevlikn he crashed

    • @PiikachUwU_OSRS
      @PiikachUwU_OSRS 2 роки тому +66

      6 feet would have been fine

  • @robertlandrum1971
    @robertlandrum1971 2 роки тому +4275

    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
      @mghemke 2 роки тому +191

      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
      @mastershooter64 2 роки тому +13

      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
      @stephen9894 2 роки тому +103

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

    • @ScottsSynthStuff
      @ScottsSynthStuff 2 роки тому +75

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

    • @sidvanhound
      @sidvanhound 2 роки тому +1

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

  • @johnmcadon4248
    @johnmcadon4248 2 роки тому +1006

    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
      @Nupetiet 2 роки тому +176

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

    • @skylined5534
      @skylined5534 2 роки тому +107

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

    • @moolahn8773
      @moolahn8773 2 роки тому +111

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

    • @Rustie_za
      @Rustie_za 2 роки тому +37

      @@moolahn8773 You understand Russian doctrine.

    • @kamalmanzukie
      @kamalmanzukie Рік тому +1

      that's an excellent observation

  • @davidshi451
    @davidshi451 2 роки тому +381

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

  • @SirPembertonS.Crevalius
    @SirPembertonS.Crevalius 2 роки тому +2096

    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
      @ijemand5672 2 роки тому +80

      Dude what the hell is your profile picture

    • @shinren_
      @shinren_ 2 роки тому +51

      @@ijemand5672 inflation kink bro 😔😔

    • @Lungoose
      @Lungoose 2 роки тому +1

      Bome soux

    • @kr19569
      @kr19569 2 роки тому +5

      Are you knighted as well?

    • @GuyNamedSean
      @GuyNamedSean 2 роки тому +13

      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.

  • @americansmark
    @americansmark 2 роки тому +447

    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.

  • @TheIronArmenianakaGIHaigs
    @TheIronArmenianakaGIHaigs 2 роки тому +2738

    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
      @GiorgioChiellini723 2 роки тому +3

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

    • @psoma_brufd
      @psoma_brufd 2 роки тому +17

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

    • @teaandmedals
      @teaandmedals 2 роки тому +10

      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
      @samholdsworth420 2 роки тому +1

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

    • @psoma_brufd
      @psoma_brufd 2 роки тому +10

      @@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.

  • @johnbeauvais3159
    @johnbeauvais3159 2 роки тому +210

    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
      @TheStavveers 2 роки тому +49

      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
      @jmackmcneill 2 роки тому +33

      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
      @coriscotupi Рік тому +16

      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.

  • @quillmaurer6563
    @quillmaurer6563 2 роки тому +292

    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
      @wolfgangmcq 2 роки тому +84

      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
      @andrewharrison8436 2 роки тому +34

      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
      @MultiPetercool 2 роки тому +12

      @@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
      @NoSpam1891 Рік тому

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

  • @WilliamPitcher
    @WilliamPitcher 2 роки тому +424

    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
      @WilliamPitcher 2 роки тому +14

      @@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
      @korakys 2 роки тому +1

      The Monkey Box.

    • @urigeheadmot1196
      @urigeheadmot1196 2 роки тому +1

      The Monkey Box.

    • @kevinmcneill468
      @kevinmcneill468 2 роки тому +4

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

    • @NathanMatthews.
      @NathanMatthews. 2 роки тому

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

  • @StarshadowMelody
    @StarshadowMelody 2 роки тому +69

    "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.

  • @PhillChapman
    @PhillChapman 2 роки тому +93

    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
      @jeffjones3581 2 роки тому

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

    • @garymorris7454
      @garymorris7454 2 роки тому

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

    • @FozzyBBear
      @FozzyBBear 2 роки тому

      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
      @professor1972 Рік тому

      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.

  • @davidmfr3y
    @davidmfr3y 2 роки тому +329

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

    • @brrrrrr
      @brrrrrr 2 роки тому +4

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

    • @Kratos_Messi7050
      @Kratos_Messi7050 2 роки тому +2

      *Flying a Blind Plane not

  • @aDifferentJT
    @aDifferentJT 2 роки тому +413

    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
      @bbgun061 2 роки тому +39

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

    • @daydodog
      @daydodog 2 роки тому +13

      That's also really cool

    • @johnlucas6683
      @johnlucas6683 2 роки тому

      That's awesome.

    • @ziginox
      @ziginox 2 роки тому

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

    • @clonkex
      @clonkex 2 роки тому +30

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

  • @johnglenn30csardas
    @johnglenn30csardas 2 роки тому +38

    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.

  • @maxcue8234
    @maxcue8234 2 роки тому +28

    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.

  • @Baja555b
    @Baja555b 2 роки тому +54

    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
      @RussellNelson 2 роки тому +2

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

    • @danielf1506
      @danielf1506 2 роки тому +1

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

    • @epicgriffin65
      @epicgriffin65 2 роки тому +2

      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
    @Pastronomer69 2 роки тому +132

    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
      @erikkennedy 2 роки тому +2

      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
      @Pastronomer69 2 роки тому +7

      @@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
      @robboltwood 2 роки тому +4

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

    • @Valisk
      @Valisk 2 роки тому

      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
      @Pastronomer69 2 роки тому +1

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

  • @ashurean
    @ashurean 2 роки тому +28

    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

  • @DrRusty5
    @DrRusty5 2 роки тому +130

    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
      @JdeBP 2 роки тому +10

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

  • @geoffeg
    @geoffeg 2 роки тому +369

    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
      @taten007 2 роки тому +2

      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_
      @Mr.Anders0n_ 2 роки тому +14

      @@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.

    • @metro-v8
      @metro-v8 2 роки тому +2

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

    • @EpicWolverine
      @EpicWolverine 2 роки тому +9

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

    • @thewiseturtle
      @thewiseturtle 2 роки тому +2

      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.

  • @neilcreek
    @neilcreek 2 роки тому +8

    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!

  • @kevinpeirson4692
    @kevinpeirson4692 2 роки тому +32

    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
      @breg5993 2 роки тому

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

  • @CableFlame
    @CableFlame 2 роки тому +5

    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.)

  • @mikefochtman7164
    @mikefochtman7164 2 роки тому +28

    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.

  • @Kyuschi
    @Kyuschi 2 роки тому +21

    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.

  • @neillthornton1149
    @neillthornton1149 2 роки тому +36

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

    • @jaydugger3291
      @jaydugger3291 2 роки тому +17

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

    • @Sir_Ross
      @Sir_Ross 2 роки тому +7

      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
      @JBrinx18 2 роки тому +1

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

    • @Sir_Ross
      @Sir_Ross 2 роки тому

      @@JBrinx18 I sure hope so

  • @thetalantonx
    @thetalantonx 2 роки тому +19

    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!

  • @Zerbey
    @Zerbey 2 роки тому +65

    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
      @owensmith7530 2 роки тому +4

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

    • @CurseTheDarkness
      @CurseTheDarkness 2 роки тому +1

      Fog or thick clouds may as well be night.

  • @derwoodbowen5954
    @derwoodbowen5954 2 роки тому +24

    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
    @IgnatianMystic 2 роки тому +18

    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.

  • @10ON10
    @10ON10 2 роки тому +873

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

    • @Lungoose
      @Lungoose 2 роки тому

      Bome soux

    • @glenngriffon8032
      @glenngriffon8032 2 роки тому +38

      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
      @darin7553 2 роки тому +2

      What do you mean by timeframe? This is incredible period

    • @daslynnter9841
      @daslynnter9841 2 роки тому +16

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

    • @LARAUJO_0
      @LARAUJO_0 2 роки тому +5

      *bold*

  • @2dragonfire514
    @2dragonfire514 2 роки тому +4

    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
      @tsm688 2 роки тому

      They still make stuff like this, just computer powered.

  • @UncleKennysPlace
    @UncleKennysPlace 2 роки тому +14

    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!)

  • @douggale5962
    @douggale5962 2 роки тому +178

    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
      @CB-rv2lj 2 роки тому

      wild.

    • @MikkoRantalainen
      @MikkoRantalainen 2 роки тому +24

      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
      @Yotanido 2 роки тому +19

      @@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
      @YourMJK 2 роки тому +16

      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 UA-cam.

    • @thewiseturtle
      @thewiseturtle 2 роки тому

      @@YourMJK Damn.

  • @marksebree5218
    @marksebree5218 2 роки тому +2

    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.

  • @SteelSkin667
    @SteelSkin667 2 роки тому +24

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

  • @ciggy_
    @ciggy_ 2 роки тому +11

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

  • @wokohedgehogs
    @wokohedgehogs 2 роки тому +4

    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 😊😊

  • @athompso99
    @athompso99 2 роки тому +6

    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 :-).

  • @prohunter717
    @prohunter717 2 роки тому +6

    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.

  • @iancook3996
    @iancook3996 2 роки тому +1

    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
    @Multi-Facets 2 роки тому +5

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

  • @pavarottiaardvark3431
    @pavarottiaardvark3431 2 роки тому +2

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

  • @445fhn
    @445fhn 2 роки тому +28

    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.

  • @HutchCA
    @HutchCA 2 роки тому +336

    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
      @tsm688 2 роки тому +78

      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
      @gamezers Рік тому +15

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

    • @andlever2004
      @andlever2004 Рік тому +5

      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
      @_Beamish Рік тому

      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
      @andlever2004 Рік тому

      @@_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

  • @r4microds
    @r4microds 2 роки тому +12

    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
      @2VeryIceyGaming 2 роки тому +2

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

    • @tsm688
      @tsm688 2 роки тому

      microsoft flight simulator is noncommercial? really?

  • @waterlubber
    @waterlubber 2 роки тому +4

    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.

  • @Nick-pk4sq
    @Nick-pk4sq 2 роки тому +130

    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
      @aafjeyakubu5124 2 роки тому +3

      We had a very similar trainer made by Singer.

  • @cadam4272
    @cadam4272 2 роки тому +9

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

    • @mutated__donkey5840
      @mutated__donkey5840 2 роки тому +6

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

  • @mytube001
    @mytube001 2 роки тому +115

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

    • @mikefochtman7164
      @mikefochtman7164 2 роки тому +32

      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
      @allangibson2408 2 роки тому +31

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

    • @ReasonsWhy1
      @ReasonsWhy1 2 роки тому +8

      @@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
      @allangibson2408 2 роки тому +9

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

    • @DrFod
      @DrFod 2 роки тому +20

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

  • @nicholasconder4703
    @nicholasconder4703 2 роки тому +2

    My father, who flew with the RAF in WW2, described an incident where someone got "shot down" in a Link Trainer. He told me that they had a Link Trainer at an RAF Air Base, and one day while one of the trainees was using the trainer, a Luftwaffe plane strafed the base and hit the pneumatic system. The system was damaged in such a way that the box containing the trainee went into a "spin" before "crashing".

  • @jaydugger3291
    @jaydugger3291 2 роки тому +6

    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.

  • @InsertFlashyName
    @InsertFlashyName 2 роки тому +1

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

  • @robnorris4770
    @robnorris4770 2 роки тому +3

    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.

  • @frenchcreekvalley
    @frenchcreekvalley 2 роки тому +1

    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.

  • @rojastegulu
    @rojastegulu 2 роки тому +6

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

  • @plokkum
    @plokkum 2 роки тому +1

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

  • @teaandmedals
    @teaandmedals 2 роки тому +4

    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
      @netyr4554 2 роки тому +1

      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.

  • @pietschreuder5047
    @pietschreuder5047 2 роки тому +1

    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!

  • @shinyagumon7015
    @shinyagumon7015 2 роки тому +36

    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
      @tsm688 2 роки тому +1

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

  • @ThisOldManOfTheSea
    @ThisOldManOfTheSea 2 роки тому +2

    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.

  • @archiescriven6178
    @archiescriven6178 2 роки тому +43

    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
      @cockatoo010 2 роки тому +2

      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
      @MrWhite2222 2 роки тому

      Ooooo that would be awesome!

    • @RussellNelson
      @RussellNelson 2 роки тому

      Syracuse is in the States. Specifically NY.

    • @DeannaGilbert616
      @DeannaGilbert616 2 роки тому

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

  • @drum420
    @drum420 2 роки тому +1

    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 !!

  • @Chishannicon
    @Chishannicon 2 роки тому +5

    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!

  • @breadbxsket2
    @breadbxsket2 2 роки тому +1

    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.

  • @eduardopupucon
    @eduardopupucon 2 роки тому +6

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

  • @alejandroviegaspalermo6497
    @alejandroviegaspalermo6497 2 роки тому +2

    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.

  • @SemiHypercube
    @SemiHypercube 2 роки тому +21

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

    • @AsbestosMuffins
      @AsbestosMuffins 2 роки тому +22

      it was originally for training for flying by instrument

    • @eddiegremlin
      @eddiegremlin 2 роки тому +10

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

  • @skylined5534
    @skylined5534 2 роки тому +1

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

  • @rustyshackelford3371
    @rustyshackelford3371 2 роки тому +22

    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
      @refraggedbean 2 роки тому +5

      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
      @MrJJandJim 2 роки тому

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

    • @ChucksSEADnDEAD
      @ChucksSEADnDEAD 2 роки тому +6

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

    • @MrJJandJim
      @MrJJandJim 2 роки тому

      @@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.

  • @moosetwin
    @moosetwin 2 роки тому

    I was thinking I remembered the sound in the background; I live in Syracuse and I went to the MOST last month!
    Thank you Tom for coming here!

  • @andrewmunro8830
    @andrewmunro8830 2 роки тому +106

    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
      @rin_etoware_2989 2 роки тому +15

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

    • @ChurchHatesTucker
      @ChurchHatesTucker 2 роки тому +12

      A lot of sailors would question that claim. ;)

    • @casparvoncampenhausen5249
      @casparvoncampenhausen5249 2 роки тому +6

      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
      @ericadler4756 2 роки тому +1

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

    • @tsm688
      @tsm688 2 роки тому

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

  • @oldsam775
    @oldsam775 2 роки тому

    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!

  • @Strunmahmah
    @Strunmahmah 2 роки тому +76

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

  • @pauld6967
    @pauld6967 2 роки тому

    I knew of these but it is good, Tom, that you have had this experience and shared it with the world.

  • @A-Milkdromeda-Laniakea-Hominid
    @A-Milkdromeda-Laniakea-Hominid 2 роки тому +3

    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.

  • @benjaminmiddaugh2729
    @benjaminmiddaugh2729 2 роки тому +1

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

  • @SylviaRustyFae
    @SylviaRustyFae 2 роки тому +3

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

    • @tsm688
      @tsm688 2 роки тому +1

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

  • @MoraleIsHigh
    @MoraleIsHigh 2 роки тому

    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.

  • @devingraves8044
    @devingraves8044 2 роки тому +4

    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)

  • @reverance_pavane
    @reverance_pavane 2 роки тому +1

    We had three operational Link trainers in the local Air Training Corps a couple of decades ago (given the work involved in restoring them I hope they are still up). With mechanical spiders for crawling over a map. One even had a remote cabin with repeater instruments for cross-country navigation training. Great for practice flying under the hood (for getting an instrument rating).

  • @RCJones560
    @RCJones560 2 роки тому +11

    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

  • @whatyousaidbud
    @whatyousaidbud 2 роки тому +1

    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!

  • @bynlb
    @bynlb 2 роки тому +3

    3:56 *roller coaster flashbacks intensify*

  • @erininstereo47
    @erininstereo47 2 роки тому +1

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

  • @whoeveriam0iam14222
    @whoeveriam0iam14222 2 роки тому +77

    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
      @NoSTs123 2 роки тому +3

      I just wanted to write that.

    • @0LoneTech
      @0LoneTech 2 роки тому +9

      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.

  • @lanzecki
    @lanzecki 2 роки тому +1

    In the late 80's I worked for Singer Link Miles (yes that link) in Lancing, UK. They still made simulators, although slightly more complicated. They had a link trainer on display in the post offices where customers came. No, it wasn't working, just the blue box on it's stand. There was more chance of getting a go on a 747 sim then even being allowed to touch the link trainer.

  • @shinobix4925
    @shinobix4925 2 роки тому +3

    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
      @hotelmario510 2 роки тому

      Simulation of Chamberlain declaring war?

  • @epicasperigus
    @epicasperigus 2 роки тому +1

    Seeing Tom Scott in a museum I’ve been in many times in my home city is surreal. It’s awesome seeing something so cool in a place I’ve actually been before

  • @mowiththehat
    @mowiththehat 2 роки тому +69

    "When you said wooden blue box, I thought you’d mean an extraterrestrial space ship time machine flown by a 2000 year old alien, not some carnival ride!"
    ~ Some kid, probably

    • @subg9165
      @subg9165 2 роки тому +5

      i remember when he was only _900_ years old or thereabouts

    • @mowiththehat
      @mowiththehat 2 роки тому +3

      @@subg9165 Those were the times. I think in Thin Ice, Twelve mentions that he’s over 2000 years old

    • @Nadia1989
      @Nadia1989 2 роки тому +1

      Is it bigger on the inside?

  • @zeke7515
    @zeke7515 2 роки тому

    We had a Link Trainer at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. They were in the process of restoring it to my knowledge. Wild to learn our flight roots come back to an amusement machine.

  • @varlequin23
    @varlequin23 2 роки тому +36

    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
      @CharlesOttman 2 роки тому +4

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

    • @splatter_proto
      @splatter_proto 2 роки тому +2

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

  • @mauriciodesouzaalves4908
    @mauriciodesouzaalves4908 2 роки тому

    It's so amazing how Tom Scott's videos always bring us quality informational videos full of really interesting curiosities, that's a UA-camr I can respect!

  • @jerrytugable
    @jerrytugable 2 роки тому +8

    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.

  • @chompygator3083
    @chompygator3083 2 роки тому +2

    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!

  • @VioletScarelli
    @VioletScarelli 2 роки тому +3

    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
      @bradevans7935 2 роки тому +1

      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.

  • @mclukehoffmann
    @mclukehoffmann 2 роки тому +1

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