Technology: Profit in Make-Believe

Some time in 1964 three U.S. astronauts will wriggle into a bell-shaped Apollo capsule, strap themselves into contour couches and await the blast-off into a challenging two-week adventure. Through the capsule’s windows, they will see the flash and smoke of blastoff, then the approaching clouds, the indigo sky, and finally the star-speckled blackness of outer space. Later, as they view the looming surface of the moon, they will begin another countdown to launch a smaller detachable capsule for a lunar landing. Before the astronauts see earth again, their skill and nerves will be severely tested by instrument failures, pressure drops, misfiring retrorockets and unexpected heat waves.

Calculated Fantasy. Actually, no U.S. lunar landing is expected before 1967—but in 1964 the astronauts will take a test “trip,” without ever leaving the ground, in an Apollo simulator built by General Precision’s Link Division of Binghamton, N.Y. Link’s business is make-believe, and the company has performed it so well that it has moved ahead of competing Curtiss-Wright to become the world’s largest builder of simulators that unerringly reproduce the sights, sounds and problems of everything from jets to space capsules.

In addition to the $9,500,000 contract for two Apollo simulators, Link has won $39 million in new orders in the past twelve months, including a $1,300,000 award to build the computer for the Gemini simulator and $3,500,000 for a general-purpose space-flight simulator. Link also builds flight simulators for the Grumman Gulfstream, the Lockheed Electra, the Convair 880, the DC-8 and Boeing’s 707, 720 and 727 jets. This week Link is working out the final details of a contract to build two simulators for a new NATO antisubmarine patrol plane, the turboprop Atlantique 1150.

Sensations & Problems. There is nothing simulated about Link’s success. The company now faces its brightest future since Founder Edwin Link, now 58, put together the first flight trainer in 1929. After selling thousands of Link Trainers to Allied Air Forces in World War II, Link foresaw the postwar rush to jets, began developing the electronic jet simulator now used by 14 airlines. To get needed development funds, Link in 1954 merged into General Precision Equipment Corp., became a semi-active director. Though its figures are buried within General Precision’s, the Link division had 1962 sales of about $30 million, made a profit of about $750,000.

The key to the Link Division’s continued success is a sophisticated digital computer that none of its competitors have yet duplicated. Programmed with an aircraft’s or capsule’s flight characteristics, the computer feeds all the sensations and problems of flight into a simulator whose interior is an exact replica of the real thing. Airlines like to use simulators for training pilots because they are safe and cost only $300 an hour to operate v. $1,200 an hour for a jet.

Thunder & Smoke. Link’s simulators are so authentic that the Federal Aviation Agency allows airline pilots to use them for most flight proficiency checks. The sound effects inside the simulator duplicate perfectly the whine of the engines. Says Link President Lloyd Kelly, 43, a World War II flight instructor: “One strange noise during simulated flight can destroy the illusion.” The earth passes by below on a continuous rubber belt, which holds a miniature landscape that is picked up and fed into the simulator cabin by closed-circuit color TV. Thunder booms and lightning flashes; smoke actually seeps into the cabin when a panel light indicates a cabin fire. If the pilot commits a disastrous error that would cause a crash, the controls lock and a horn blares loudly. At that moment, veteran pilots have been known to break down and scream.