Healthy Brain Games
Back in 1934, the U.S. Army Air Corps had a big problem. It had just lost a dozen pilots in a variety of plane accidents and was desperate to solve this problem. Thanks to Edwin Albert Link Jr.’s Link Trainer—an early flight simulator (aka “the Blue Box”)—our pilots could practice takeoffs, landings, deep dives and turns much more intensively than they could practice in the air. The Link Trainer not only reduced the risk of crashing, but also resulted in much better flying performance when the pilots finally did get into a plane. So by the time World War II began, the U.S. government owned about 10,000 Link Trainers. We didn’t know it at the time, but we were helping pilots with brain exercises.