“Edwin Link’s legacy is immense and today it is hard to imagine a time when simulation was not an integral part of training”. The then Chief of the Defence Staff, ACM Sir Jock Stirrip, started the Royal Aeronautical Society’s inaugural Edwin Link Named Lecture by telling the story of Edwin Link: the man who created the first flight simulator and then championed the technology before, during and after the Second World War.

Sir Jock’s main theme was exploring how simulation was aiding the armed services in the first decade of the twenty-first century. He takes us through how the Royal Air Force was harnessing flight simulation, with projects including the Medium Support Helicopter Aircrew Training Facility at RAF Benson and the Mission Training through Distributed Simulation (MTDS) project at RAF Waddington. Sir Jock also explores how the Royal Navy used simulation, including at the Maritime Warfare School at Portsmouth, and the British Army’s use of simulators for training soldiers who worked with tanks and those charged with disarming Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).

Sir Jock also looks to the future, where he hoped that the technology would continue to blur the boundaries between simulation and reality. He predicted that commanders would be able to see the environment, be able to hone in on an area of interest and be able to see the predicted results before real troops were committed. In effect, there would be “a fusing of the synthetic and real worlds”.

Sir Jock Stirrup gave the Inaugural Edwin Link Named Lecture to the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Flight Simulation Group on 7 November 2007. The material and information contained in this lecture are UK Ministry of Defence © Crown copyright 2007 and the recording is the copyright of the Royal Aeronautical Society 2007. The podcast was edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS.