Travel Experience Uncovers Aviation Connection

People used to call all facial tissue "Kleenex" because the product invented by Kimberly-Clark was so ubiquitous that the name became generic.

Pilots did the same thing with flight simulators calling the devices "Links" even if they were made by another manufacturer.

In 1929 Edwin Link invented his first device for training pilots on the ground. He used pumps, valves and bellows from his father's organ manufacturing company to build a "full motion" simulator. The thing "pitched and rolled" in response to the trainee's control inputs and even had short wings and a vestigial tail.

Genuine full m...