Looking back at a career dominated by the use of flight simulation as a tool for operational training, Wg Cdr Eastman gives personal insights into flight simulation from the viewpoint of an RAF pilot, a commander of a training unit and a purchaser for the Ministry of Defence using the Public Finance Initiative. Eastman also shares his experiences of the technology used to train pilots to fly many of the aircraft used by the RAF in the last half of the twentieth century, including the BAC Jet Provost, Hawker Siddeley Nimrod, SEPECAT Jaguar, BAE Systems Hawk, the Hawker Siddeley Harrier, and ending with the Eurofighter Typhoon. The lecture concludes with Eastman making predictions on the future of his topic and the lecture is threaded with tributes to the pioneer of flight simulation, Edwin A. Link.

Wg Cdr Dick Eastman OBE gave the Royal Aeronautical Society’s 2012 Edwin A. Link Memorial Lecture, organised by the RAeS Flight Simulation Group, on 30 May 2012. The lecture was introduced by Gordon Woolley FRAeS and the podcast was edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS.