Thank you to Brandon Zimmerman for all his long hours working on the Link and time spent searching out parts and manuals across the continent. We have also welcomed Tom Irie and his expertise in the electronics field. He is very busy with some re-wiring on the Link and we hear the two of them are seriously looking at getting the second one up and running. One project after another - busy hands keeps them out of trouble.

The LINK Trainer was an early simulator patented by Edwin Albert LINK of Binghampton, New York in 1929. Link worked at his father's organ and piano factory while he was learning how to fly. He patented the cockpit like device with a simulated instrument panel and control stick, all which floated on organ bellows. The result was simulated movement of aircraft flight.

The director of training for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), Air Vice-Marshall Robert Leckie of the Royal Air Force (RAF) bought 200 Link trainers for the plan. The first fifty received, were made in the United States with the remaining machines being manufactured in Ontario at a factory near Gananoque.

The Link would move like an aeroplane as the pilot candidate inputted movement on the controls. The Link was an essential tool for determining potential pilots and teaching basic instrument skills, without the cost of operating an aeroplane. However, the initial cost price of the Link was greater than the cost of a fighter in its day.

The only woman instructor in the BCATP was Margaret LITTLEWOOD who instructed on the Link during 1943-44.

AVM Leckie's order of the Link proved to be a turning point for the simulator. It is credited for training more that two million military and commercial pilots.