> Does anyone know about "flight simulators" being driven by air motors and pneumatics?

In June 2009 I visited the Empire State Aerosciences Museum in Scotia,
New York (near Schenectady).  They had a restored 1944 Link Aviation
Trainer on display which they had restored circa 2004.  Part of their
write-up says:

  "The vacuum driven turning engine has been restored to working
  condition and in this unit alone there are twenty individual bellows
  all of which were rotted out and had to be remade as well as broken
  castings and crank levers... to the best of our knowledge this is
  the only museum unit that has any motion, let alone controlled by
  the viewer".

The display had much more information, and included photos of the
restoration and info on the instructor's desk and other equipment which
was used in conjunction with the trainer to input variables and monitor
the student's flight parameters.

In this display, a visitor could push a button to start up the vacuum
motor for a while, and you could see the air motor work and rotate the
plane around.  I think it has a 10-pneumatic air motor, photo attached.
I took a 20 second video of it running and have now uploaded it to
YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1SAHni3MiE
 

Rick Inzero

 [ Link Trainer Air Motor
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/14/12/31/141231_165420_LinkTrainerAirMotor.JPG