Steve at linktrainer.net is likely the world’s leading expert on Blue Box trainers. He has restored this beautiful fully functional ANT-18 and is working on another trainer. Check out his great website at linktrainer.net.
Here is his restoration policy and a perspective on the Link trainer in his Steve’s own words :
“As a teenager and into my college years I helped my dad restore player pianos and nickelodeons, which he collected as a hobby – as I’m sure you already know, Ed Link’s father owned a player piano/organ company which is one of the reasons these machines have some similar technology – it was what Ed was familiar with. The restoration policy was to make the machines appear as if they had just come from the factory – a philosophy I have continued to subscribe to . . . “
“I’ve had a number of pilots and non-pilots fly the Link – and there is no doubt that the trained pilots have an advantage when flying under the hood but with a little bit of instruction some non-pilots get the idea pretty quickly even with the hood down, learning the necessity to rely on the instruments for orientation. Others will only fly with the hood open – but it is a lot of fun and many of my newly graduate engineer coworkers are amazed at what was done with vacuum, mechanisms, and a bit of electronics 75 years ago.”
Steve has written technical papers on several of the Blue Box subsystems including the Telegon oscillator and the slip stream simulator.
Steve has shared his in-depth knowledge of the Blue Box along with some of his lessons learned with blueboxdriver.com during our quest to get our systems up and running. A big tip-of-the-hat to Steve from the folks at blueboxdriver.com.
Steve should write a book. With his knowledge, he could keep the Blue Boxes alive for another 75 years.