NASG acquired and is in the process of restoring an original 1940s Link trainer, a flight simulator used to train hundreds of Navy pilots during World War II. Colloquially known as the “Blue Box” or “Pilot Trainer,” the trainer was created in 1929 by Ed Link out of the need for a safe way to teach new pilots how to use their aircraft’s instruments. Inside the “cockpit,” the pilot would “fly” through various maneuvers with slip stream simulators giving the “instruments” the feeling of air passing over the surface and a rough air generator adding additional realism. An instructor would sit at a desk outside the trainer to transmit radio messages which the student heard through earphones and grade them on their performance. In fact, at NASG, some women, as part of WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), served as instructors to train new pilots in the link trainers.