Says Crouch, “A new pilot had to think about fl ying a Wright machine, and that was a dangerous thing.” At most ground schools, students learned what was then
known about weather, air currents and altitude eff ects, although the center of gravity was not yet understood. Few instructors could off er more than a makeshift simulator using a barrel balanced on wood planks and hung by ropes from a winch. Inside his factory, Orville Wright took the engine off of an old, unused aircraft and affi xed it to sawhorses mounted to the fl oor. Young Lt. Henry “Hap” Arnold later described his training
during 1911 on what Crouch believes is the world’s fi rst aircraft frame used for a fl ight simulator: “The lateral controls were connected with small clutches at the wingtips, and grabbed a moving belt running over a pulley. A forward motion, and the clutch would snatch the belt, and down would go the left wing. A backward pull and the reverse would happen. The jolts and teetering were so violent that the student was kept busy just moving the lever back and forth to keep on an even keel. That was primary training, and it lasted for a few days.” Graduating pilots from the Wright school averaged about
ten days of lessons, with three or four hours of fl ying time, while some schools off ered even less instruction. Hundreds of aviators became profi cient; many later fl ying professionally in exhibitions and air meets. Aircraft at the time were constantly redesigned to keep up with aeronautical science. Aviation accidents were common and fatalities imminent. It didn’t take long for pilots and aircraft designers to realize they needed better pre-fl ight training on the ground. The answer came from an unexpected source.
THE MISSING LINK TO FLIGHT TRAINING “Ed Link was a neat guy,” wrote his friend, Harvey Roehl, after Link’s death in 1981. Roehl was then writing for his colleagues in the Automatic Musical Instrument Collectors Association (AMICA). “Ed was always the happiest when he was in work clothes, tinkering with some new device or
gadget in his workshop,” wrote Roehl. Edward Albert Link Jr. [1904-1981] earned his membership with AMICA due to his family business of building and repairing pianos and organs. Link was obviously bright but uninterested in classroom academics. At age 16, he left school to work for his father.
The Link Piano Company of Binghamton, NY, repaired organs and pianos such as this “Cottage Favorite Organ,” offered in the Sears catalog of 1909 for $27.65. Edward Albert Link Jr. utilized the mechanical operations within these musical instruments when he designed the fi rst fl ight simulators dur- ing the late 1920s.
When his team gets a call about an aircraft interior concern, they prepare a solution at their shop in Cincinnati and travel to a customer’s hangar to fix any issue up to strip and refinish or interior reupholster.
For the rest of the story visit
www.DuncanAviation.aero/ experience/
jeremy.php.
When a customer has an interior concern, it’s not always worth the downtime and flight cost to have it immediately fixed. That’s why Duncan Aviation goes to the customer.
Experience. Unlike any other. +1 402.475.2611 | 800.228.4277 06 2014 21
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