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"Bob Bradlee" wrote:
Then there was the 1940's vintage links
trainer I worked on when at the Navy T
D 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 cont
roled crashes it would
accept as a landing. It did a good job of plotting your ground movement on a b
ig 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.
I was recently in Corning NY and had a few hours to kill before my flight
left. There is an *excellent* war plane museum next to the airport.
[link to cctalk? huh? :-)]
And in it were some very old and not so old flight simulators/trainers.
One looked like it was some sort of 16 bit machine. I think it was made
by Links (spelling?). I should have taken notes - I will next time. I
was thinking it would be fun to fire up some day. Rows of 19" racks. I
wanted to jump over the ropes and turn it on but the "docent" would
probably ha ve had a heart attack.
(we did have an absolutely amazing conversation about the origin of
strobe lights and how the folks at Corning helped create them and get
them installed along the final into east Berlin. It involved glass from
Corning and a metal finish from some company in New Jersey. Somehow I
suspect Doc Edgerton was envolved in that...)
But it worked and flew well.
well, that's what counts :-)
I've yet to fly a simulator which I can look out of over left wing and
figure out if I'm level. But I have never been to flightsafty yet...
-brad