Edwin Albert Link
Edwin Albert Link ( July 26, 1904 in Huntington (Indiana), USA, † September 7, 1981 in Binghamton (New York), United States) was the inventor of the first flight simulator. According to him, these simulators named Link trainer.
Life
Edwin Link was born in 1904 in Huntington (Indiana, USA). His paternal ancestors came from Germany. The first link in his ancestry, Hans Linck (then written " Linck " ) is first mentioned in Wimpfen on the Neckar, in present-day Baden- Württemberg in 1417. 1910 moved with his family link to Binghamton in upstate New York, where his father bought a bankrupt music company and the "Link Piano and Organ Company of Binghamton, New York" transformed. Here Edwin began his career as an inventor. In the twenties he made with considerable expenditure of money his pilot's license.
During his flight training he started with parts of organs from the factory of his father in the years 1927 to 1929 to develop a training device that allows aspiring pilots could learn to fly safely and inexpensively, without leaving the ground. This link came in good stead experience with mechanics and pneumatics from the piano and organ building. The trainee was sitting there isolated from the outside world in a cabin, could such control in a real airplane and experienced the reactions to his manipulations in all three spatial axes. Link improved these reactions to a real flight could be mimicked convincing. In addition, he equipped the coach with instruments for blind flying. The device was patented in 1930.
Although successful, the trainer was first considered as a toy and sold the first devices to amusement parks. 1934, after a series of accidents at night mail flights, ordered the U.S. Army Air Corps six coaches of links in order to improve the training program for pilots. At one time the public became aware of this practical device and orders came from all parts of the world, as well as from Germany, the Netherlands ( KLM ) and Japan ( Imperial Navy, 1935). As of 1941, all American pilots were trained to link trainers. During the Second World War, the American pilots learned in Links coaches instrument flying and radio beacon in bad weather flights and landing.
With the help of his wife Marion Clayton Link, whom he had married in 1931, Edwin Link led the very successful company " Link Aviation, Inc. ", which he sold in 1954. After Edwin Link turned to the Underwater Archaeology and Underwater Exploration. With her two sons William and Edwin Martin Clayton, the couple Link undertook numerous journeys, during which link worked to improve the diving equipment to dive deeper, longer and safer. He was the first who used a mixture of oxygen and helium for breathing under water.
Link was exceptionally generous and donated to many foundations. His gifts to the Binghamton University Close Binghamtons first endowed chair one ( " Edwin A. Link Organ Music "). The grounds of the airport of Binghamton was named after him as Edwin A Link Field. At the airport, an original Link Trainer is issued.