Ed Link Inducted into National Inventors Hall of Fame.To download high-resolution, print-ready JPEG JPEG in full Joint Photographic Experts Group Standard computer file format for storing graphic images in a compressed form for general use. JPEG images are compressed using a mathematical algorithm. images, click on the thumbnail image above. WARNING: these images are very large (800K+) Click here for caption Photo Editors/Business Editors/High-Tech Writers NOTE TO MEDIA: Multimedia assets available A photo is available at URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. : http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.050203/bb1 NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 2, 2003 L-3 Communications (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : LLL LLL abbr. left lower lobe (of the lung) ) today announced that Ed Link, who developed the first pilot training device in 1929, will be inducted on May 3 into the National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame is an organization that honors important inventors from the whole world who have lodged a domestic American patent. The only prerequisite of induction is being named an inventor on a US patent. Posthumous induction is allowed. (NIHF NIHF National Inventors Hall of Fame NIHF Northern Ireland Hotels Federation ) in Akron, OH. Link, whose legacy lives on today within L-3 Communications' Link Simulation and Training division, joins 16 other major aviation and aerospace leaders in this year's NIHF inductee class. This year's ceremony will bring the NIHF's total number of inductees to 201 since it was first founded in 1973 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO or USPTO) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that provides patent protection to inventors and businesses for their inventions, and trademark registration for product and intellectual property and the National Council of Patent Law Associations. "Ed Link's contributions to enhancing pilot training and making aviation safer around the world are extraordinary," said Jim Dunn, president of L-3 Communications' Link Simulation and Training division. "As a visionary 75 years ago he recognized the tremendous value a ground-based flight trainer could bring in improving the skills of both new and experienced pilots. By inventing the first pilot training device and continuing to make significant contributions throughout his aviation career, Ed Link spawned the creation of what today is a multi-billion dollar simulation industry." Link's odyssey in becoming the "Father of Flight Simulation" began in 1927 when, at the age of 23, he began working for his father at the Link Piano and Organ Factory in Binghamton, NY. He built pianos and tuned organs, a job that required a thorough knowledge of the pumps, valves and bellows that directed the air power within the instrument. It was during this period that Link, whose passion was aviation, began to wonder if he could create a training device that could give pilots the skills they would need to safely fly. Link's idea to develop a ground-based flight trainer was given a boost during a chance meeting with a group of fliers at Wright Field, OH in 1927. In a book on his life, "From Sky to Sea," Link said that he watched as a "Major Ocker" tried to help a group of aviators at Wright Field understand the problems with direction that are encountered while in flight. "He'd blindfold blindfold worn by personification of justice. [Art: Hall, 183] See : Justice the people and twist them around in this seat a few times, then ask them which way they were turning," Link states in the book. "They invariably in·var·i·a·ble adj. Not changing or subject to change; constant. in·var  i·a·bil said the wrong way and that was one of the things that gave me the idea that you could make a whole airplane to train a pilot to do everything. He (Major Ocker) was merely demonstrating... that you couldn't tell where you were going by sight or feel. You had to have an instrument that told you where you were turning and whether you were flying straight or level." Over the next 18 months, Link worked in his father's piano and organ factory's basement to create a machine that could mimic the experiences of flying an airplane without ever leaving the ground. Link applied the principles he had mastered in building fine organs to the design of his new flight training device. The pilot trainer's stubby stub·by adj. stub·bi·er, stub·bi·est 1. a. Having the nature of or suggesting a stub, as in shortness, broadness, or thickness: stubby fingers and toes. b. wooden cockpit fuselage was mounted on organ bellows that Link had borrowed from his father's piano factory. An electric pump drove the organ bellows that allowed the trainer to bank, climb and dive as a pilot operated the controls in the cockpit. Link received a patent for his new pilot trainer on April 14, 1929, the first in a long series of patents that he would receive for continued flight simulation innovations. Link upgraded the trainer in 1933 to include aviation instruments in common use at the time, such as radio aids and gauges that could tell a pilot if he was flying level. From instrument flight training to new navigation techniques to the first trainer designed to simulate flight in a jet-powered aircraft, Link trainers would continue to evolve and set new standards of excellence in pilot training. Today, Link simulators are providing training for pilots and aircrews on some of the world's most advanced military aircraft. Link has built simulators for aircraft platforms including the B-2, F-117, F/A-22, F/A-18, F-16, C-130, T-45 and a wide range of attack, reconnaissance and transport helicopters. Link Simulation and Training is a systems integration organization that specializes in delivering and supporting training systems and equipment that enhance operational proficiency. Link has major operations in Arlington, TX; Binghamton, NY; Orlando, FL; Broken Arrow, OK; and Phoenix, AZ. Headquartered in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. , L-3 Communications is a leading merchant supplier of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance may refer to:
Homeland Security executive department - a federal department in the executive branch of the government of the United States , selected U.S. Government intelligence agencies, aerospace prime contractors and commercial telecommunications and wireless customers. SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA) implemented several significant substantive changes affecting certain cases brought under the federal securities laws, including changes related to pleading, discovery, liability, class representation and awards fees and OF 1995 Except for historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this news release are forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements set forth above involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any such statement, including the risks and uncertainties discussed in the company's Safe Harbor Compliance Statement for Forward-looking Statements included in the company's recent filings, including Forms 10-K and 10-Q, with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made, and the company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Note: A photo is available at URL: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.050203/bb1 |
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