Saint Louis Downtown Airport

Old flight simulators being readied for take-off in Cahokia

August 3, 2011 -- The instrument panel of a Link-D4 Trainer waits for interaction at the Greater St. Louis Air and Space Museum at the St. Louis Downtown Airport in Cahokia on Wednesday morning. The aircraft trainer, built in 1950 in England, was designed to mimic a Hunting P.56 Provost aircraft. Erik M. Lunsford elunsford@post-dispatch.com

CAHOKIA • It looks like an old carnival ride. Flies a bit like one, too.

Six decades ago, the big blue contraption was the last word in ground training for British military pilots. Volunteer tinkerers with the Greater St. Louis Air and Space Museum have spent three years making it work again.

The 1950-vintage machine is one of two old flight simulators the museum is restoring. It has a third on loan to the St. Louis Science Center. The goal is to show visitors how pilots were trained to obey their instrument panels, not their animal instincts.

"It's always a lot safer to 'crash' in one of these," said Mike Scruggs of Belleville, one of the restorers.

The museum's collection ranges from vintage airplanes to a production mockup of a rocket-propelled smart bomb. Founded in 1983 as the St. Louis Aviation Museum at Creve Coeur Airport, the institution was renamed when it moved in 2005 into an old hangar at St. Louis Downtown Airport in Cahokia.

That's where Scruggs and Doug Bent have been working on the British model and an American simulator built in 1943 for the old Army Air Forces, World War II forerunner of the U.S. Air Force. The American version still needs a bunch of work, but Scruggs and Bent do something with it every week.

The one at the Science Center isn't in line for restoration to working condition, said Carmelo Turdo, a museum board member. There's challenge enough getting money, parts and work hours for two of them, he said.

Scruggs has been taking apart radios as a hobby since he was 16. Bent is a former aircraft electronics craftsman. Both are retired.

Airship Ventures Zeppelin Eureka Arrives at St. - The Aero Experience

Airship Ventures Zeppelin "Eureka" arrived at St. Louis Downtown Airport mobile mooring station around 4:45pm today following the assembling of the ground crew.  Local aviation enthusiasts, airport staff and news media gathered to view the airship as it gently touched down in a field beyond historic Curtiss-Wright Hangars One and Two near the Greater St. Louis Air & Space Museum.  The Zeppelin, sponsored by Farmer's Insurance, will be at the airport through August, and rides can be purchased by visiting http://www.airshipventures.com/fly-with-us .  Here are some views of the approach and landing.

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