Edwin Albert Link

Edwin Link was born in Huntington, Indiana, in 1904, the son of Edwin A. Link Sr. and Katherine (Martin) Link. In 1910, he moved with his family to Binghamton, New York. ==Aviation==

Aviator He took his first flying lesson in 1920. In 1927, he obtained the first Cessna airplane ever delivered and eked out a living by barnstorming, charter flying and giving lessons. Much of the pneumatic system was adapted directly from technology used in the organ factory; and, in the 1970s, Link used parts scavenged from an inoperative trainer to help rebuild a Link pipe organ. Link Aeronautical Corporation He formed the Link Aeronautical Corporation in 1929 to manufacture the trainers. In 2000 the Link Trainer was placed on the List of Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmarks. Link Aviation Together with his wife Marion Clayton Link, whom he had married in 1931, Edwin Link managed the very successful Link Aviation, Inc. The Link Foundation In 1953, Edwin and Marion Link established The Link Foundation. The foundation continues to provide grants and fellowships in aeronautics, simulation and training, ocean engineering, energy, and organizations of interest to the Links. ==Undersea interests==

Man-in-Sea project After Link sold his company to General Precision in 1954, he turned his attention to underwater archaeology and research. This dive served as a test run for a dive the following month by Robert Sténuit, who spent over 24 hours in the SDC at a depth of and thus became the world's first aquanaut. Dr. Joseph B. MacInnis participated in this dive as a life support specialist. Later in 1968, after Deep Diver had been requisitioned by the United States Navy to help search for the lost submarine USS Scorpion, the Bureau of Ships determined that Deep Diver was unsafe for use at great depths or in extremely cold temperatures because of the substitution of the wrong kind of steel, which became brittle in cold water, in some parts of the sub. Over the next two years, Edwin Link designed an unmanned Cabled Observation and Rescue Device (CORD) that could free a trapped submersible. ==Death==

Edwin Link died in his sleep on September 7, 1981, in Binghamton, New York, where he had been undergoing treatment for cancer. ==Honors==

Link was awarded the Howard N. Potts Medal He received an honorary degree from Syracuse University in 1966 In 1976, he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame. Link donated $6 million to build the engineering building on the campus of Syracuse University. The Edwin A. Link Hall of Engineering was dedicated in presence of Link and his family on October 16, 1970. It currently houses offices, classrooms and laboratories of the Syracuse University College of Engineering and Computer Science. From the early 1980s to the 1990s, what is now Greater Binghamton Airport was named Edwin A. Link Field-Broome County Airport his honor,. The field is still named after Link, and there is an original "Blue Box" on display in the terminal. The Link Building at Florida Institute of Technology (Melbourne, FL) is named for Edwin A. Link inventor of the Link Trainer and co-founder of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution. A display of an original Link Trainer can be seen in the College of Aeronautics’ Skurla Hall, a two-minute walk from the Link Building. ==References==