Link Trainer Building, Aviation training facility in Florida, US
The Link Trainer Building is a one-story, split-level wood-frame vernacular structure built in 1942 at Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, now on the grounds of Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport. Its two wings, 114 feet long and 41 feet wide, hold about 4,674 square feet of floor space under a tar-and-gravel roof on concrete piers. A small equipment room rises between the wings above the double-door entrance.
Built in 1942 as Building #8 of Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, a base set up on a civilian airport to train torpedo bomber pilots for the Pacific. Instruction in the Link Trainer Building began on December 28, 1942, with up to 3,600 personnel stationed there. The Navy declared the station surplus in 1948, and the building passed to Broward County; it was listed on the National Register on May 20, 1998.
The museum holds one Link Trainer, acquired in 2007 and restored the following year; students once trained four hours on such devices and four more hours with video instruction in this building. Displays include "The George Bush Room", a recreated barracks honouring the 19-year-old Ensign George H. W. Bush who trained here, "Broward Goes to War", and a memorial to Flight 19, the Grumman Avengers lost after leaving NAS Fort Lauderdale.
The building stands at 4000 West Perimeter Road, on the grounds of Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport, not at its original 4050 Southwest 14th Avenue site. It is a one-story structure with three wood-step entrances, so step-free access is limited. It now operates as the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum; check opening arrangements before travelling.
The museum's Link Trainer, obtained in 2007 and restored the following year, is one of the few surviving examples of the simulator in which each student trained for four hours. The building also holds a memorial to Flight 19, the five Grumman TBF Avengers that vanished after leaving NAS Fort Lauderdale in 1945.
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