And you thought testing the F-117 was a feat? In the days before building a full-scale 737 mock-up in your garage was possible, flight schools and even NASA relied on mechanical simulators to train pilots. Our friends at Oobject have collected 12 of the most advanced simulators of the day.
Be sure to also check out these impressive aircraft factories, some swanky airline cabins, and these POV plane landings.
Cockpit of the Link Celestial Navigation Trainer
Link Celestial Navigation Trainer
Note how insanely large and complex this is — the life size cockpit in in the centre.
The Hagner Planetarium, Celestial Navigation Trainer
A row of early Link trainers in a hangar
Dual Cockpit, CONVAIR NC-131H Total In-Flight Simulator
This is not two planes next to each other but one plane with two cockpits.
1909 Training Rig for the Antoinette Aircraft
Poster for Edwin A. Link’s Flight Trainer, 1930s
Blind Flying in a Dummy Plane, 1936
Volmer Jensen in His Penguin Flight Trainer
Seaplane Trainer with Shortened Wings, 1915
First flight simulator based on an octahedral hexapod, hydraulic platform, mid-1960s
Wooden Mock-ups of the Apollo Space Capsule
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