This country is at war with Germany. We shall go on to the end. I remember the sheets of

flame which came up and almost blinded us from our guns. Before the Second World War, learning to fly by instruments was one of the most difficult and dangerous skills of pilot had to master.

Training had to be done in real aircraft, often in poor weather and accidents were common.

In the late 1920s, an American inventor named Edwin Albert Link came up with an ingenious solution.

His link trainer, sometimes called the Blue Box, allowed pilots to practice instrument flying safely on the ground using mechanical flight simulator.

By the time the war began these machines become an essential part of pilot training

and hundreds of thousands of Allied airmen first learned instrument flying inside one.

To explore the story of the link trainer, I'm joined by Robbie Huben from the Belgian Royal Military

Museum, which holds several examples of these remarkable machines.

Robbie also has an excellent video on his YouTube channel, Two Dudes Talking Tanks,

which looks at the Link Trainer in the museum.

Robbie, welcome back.

So, the Link Trainer, I think we should probably start looking at the inventor of the Link trainer, Edwin Albert Link.

Who is Edwin Albert Link?

Because he's not a pilot, is it?

That's not his background.

So we've caught with a trainer.

He's not necessarily who you think he might be.

Indeed.

So Edwin Albert Link, I'm specifically saying Albert because he also had a son Clayton Link.

We will talk about later.

So he was born in Indiana, United States in 1904.

...