Lone Star Flight Museum “Gateway to Space” exhibit • Washing a B17. • The Link Trainer on display was the world's first commercially produced flight simulator. • 2nd Anniversary Cake for all Museum Guests! 11 am – Noon • 21-panel exhibit • Free for members or with a general admission ticket. Gateway to Space This original, 21-panel exhibit celebrates the history, future and legacy of Ellington Airport. The exhibit will also have on display a Link Trainer, used in WWII to train pilots. Photos, illustrations and stories from Ellington's extraordinary history bring to life details of this historic site that opened in 1917. The exhibit will remain open through January 19, 2020. The Link Trainer was the world’s first commercially produced flight simulator and the ANT-18 model was used for pilot training in the US and Allied countries during World War II. Over 500,000 pilots trained on Link trainers and many were installed at Ellington Field for instrument flight training. Often called “the Blue Box,” the Link ANT-18 consisted of an aircraft-shaped cockpit which could move in three directions and a desk that contained the controls that instructors used to monitor the training. Students had no outside view and relied on their instruments to guide them, while communicating with the instructor via an intercom with a headset and microphone. The Link Trainer on display at the Lone Star Flight Museum is a generous gift from the USS Midway Museum.