Then there was the 1940's vintage links trainer I worked on when at the Navy TD school
Millingon Tn. Now
that was a hoot working on that old thing. But it was far from a computer, but it did spin
around and buck
up and down based on control movements and could simulate a stall for the controled
crashes it would
accept as a landing. It did a good job of plotting your ground movement on a big chart
table and the
instructor could dial in a cross wind. We all had to go through ground school using it,
before we were
allowed to work on it.
Then the USMC assigned me to an F4j Phantom flight sym in Beaufort SC, and other than a
small TTL
upgrade for the ECM and stand off weapons stuff, it was all Analog! Even the RIO's
backseat display was
connected to a a ntsc vodeo camera flying over a 30" sq hunk of microfilm where
altitude controled the
camera zoom to keep the image in scale, and ground speed servos moved the camera. All
engine and
flight charictics were controled by 6L6 tube driven servo motors, mechanically connect to
gear boxes
driving banks of 10 to 50 turn helopots, to kept it in the air so to speek. We had had
monthly calibration
partys when we changed the driver tubes on a rotation basis. But it worked and flew well.
till later
Bob