The Link family firm in Binghamton manufactured player pianos and organs, and Ed Link was therefore familiar with such components as leather bellows and reed switches. He was also a pilot, but dissatisfied with the amount of real flight training that was available, he decided to build a ground-based device to provide such training without the restrictions of weather and the availability of aircraft and flight instructors. His design had a pneumatic motion platform driven by inflatable bellows which provided pitch and roll cues. A vacuum motor similar to those used in player pianos rotated the platform, providing yaw cues. A generic replica cockpit with working instruments was mounted on the motion platform. When the cockpit was covered, pilots could practice flying by instruments in a safe environment. The motion platform gave the pilot cues as to real angular motion in pitch (nose up and down), roll (wing up or down) and yaw (nose left and right)."ASME Landmarks: The Link Flight Trainer." American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Retrieved: 18 December 2011.
The Link family firm in Binghamton manufactured player pianos and organs, and Ed Link was therefore familiar with such components as leather bel,lows and reed switches. He was also a pilot, but dissatisfied with the amount of real flight training that was available he decided to build a ground-based device to provide such training without the restrictions of weather and the availability of aircraft and flight instructors. His design had a pneumatic motion platform driven by inflatable bellows which provided pitch and roll cues. A vacuum motor similar to those used in player pianos rotated the platform, providi,ng yaw cues. A generic replica cockpit with working instruments was mounted on the motion platform When the cockpit was covered pilots could practice flying by instruments in a safe environment. The motion platform gave the pilot cues as to real angul.ar motion in pitch (nose up and down), roll (wing up or down) and yaw (nose left and right)."ASME Landmarks: The Link Flight Trainer." American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Retrieved: 18 December 2011.