Canadian Warplanes 9-1: Link Trainer

The Link Trainer in Canadian Service

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3613290)

RCAF Link trainers, July 1943.  

The Link Trainer is one of a series of flight simulators produced between theearly 1930s and early 1950s by Link Aviation Devices, founded and headed by EdLink, based on technology he pioneered in 1929 at his family's business in Binghampton,New York.  During the Second World War,they were used as a key pilot training aid by almost all combatant nations.

The original Link Trainer was created in 1929 out of theneed for a safe way to teach new pilots how to fly by instruments.  Ed Link used his knowledge of pumps, valvesand bellows gained at his father's Link Piano and Organ Company to create aflight simulator that responded to the pilot's controls and gave an accuratereading on the included instruments.  More than 500,000 US pilots were trained on Link simulators, as were pilots in Australia,Canada, Germany, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Israel, Japan, Pakistan and the USSR.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3584954)

RCAF Link Trainer, 14 June 1954.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3584532)

RCAF Link trainer, Rockcliffe, Ontario, 9 June 1951.

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(Bzuk Photo)

Link Trainer at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3584874)

Link trainer, RCAF Station Rockcliffe, Ontario, 19 Nov 1953.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 4327232)

‍Flying Officer A.E. Jarvis instructs students ona Link Trainer at Initial Training School, Toronto, 25 July 1940.

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(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 4327231)

‍Flying Officer A.E. Jarvis instructs students ona Link Trainer at Initial Training School, Toronto, 25 July 1940.

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(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3199512)

Link Trainer, Royal Canadian Air Force Station Alliford Bay, British Columbia, 10 April 1942.

(Jack1956 Photo)

The instrument panel of the Link Trainer at the Shuttleworth in the UK.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 4948399)

RCAF Cpl (A) J. Ongman in a link trainer, 8 Oct 1968.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3353846)

Link trainer, TCA, Winnipeg.

Link trainers are preserved and on display in a number of Canadian locations:

Two are on displayat the Canadian Museum of Flight, Langley, British Columbia.

One is on displayat the British Columbia Aviation Museum, Sidney, British Columbia.

One is being restoredat the Comox Air Force Museum, CFB Comox, British Columbia.

One is on displayat the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton, Alberta.

One is on displayat the Reynolds-Alberta Museum, Wetaskiwin, Alberta.

One is on displayat The Hangar Flight Museum, Calgary, Alberta.

Two are on displayat the Alberta Aviation Museum, Edmonton, Alberta.

One is on displayat the Claresholm Museum in Claresholm, Alberta.

One is on displayat the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, Brandon, Manitoba.

One is on displayat the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

One is on displayat the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre, Sault Ste. Marie.

One is on displayat the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa, Ontario.

One is on displayat the No. 6 RCAF Dunnville Museum, Dunnville, Ontario.

One is with theCanadian Harvard Association in Tillsonburg, Ontario 

One is in storage inToronto.

One is on displayat the North Atlantic Aviation Museum, Gander, Newfoundland.

Moving forward...

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3584956)

Instrument Flying Trainer, Type C11B, 14 June 1954.

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(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 4297984)

Captain S. Grant in new electro-mechanical flight trainer or flight simulator, July 1955.

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