Flight simulator refers to any electronic or mechanical system for training airplane and space-craft pilots by simulating flight conditions. The purpose of simulation is not to completely substitute  21  actual flight training but to thoroughly familiarize students with the vehicle  22  before they undergo extensive and possibly dangerous actual flight training.

Two early flight simulators appeared in England within a decade after the first flight of Orville and Wilbur Wright. They were designed to enable pilots to  23  simple aircraft maneuvers in three dimensions: nose up or down; left wing high and right low, or vice versa; and yawing to left or right. Until 1929, however, a truly effective simulator, the Link Trainer devised by Edwin A. Link, a self-educated aviator and inventor, appeared.  24 , airplane instrumentation had been developed sufficiently to permit "blind" flying on instruments alone, but training pilots to do so involved  25  risk. Link built a model of airplane cockpit equipped  26  instrument panel and controls that could simulate all the movements of an airplane. Plots could use the device for instrument training, manipulating the controls  27  instrument readings so as to maintain straight and level flight or controlled climb or descent with no visual reference  28  any horizon except for the artificial one on the instrument panel. The trainer was modified  29  aircraft technology advanced. Commercial airlines began to use the Link Trainer for pilot training, and the U.S. government began purchasing them in 1934,  30  thousands more as World War II approached.