This is an excellent thread even though it may have steered a little of course.
Cheers
PACO572
When imagination was still a thing 
And when we ran around as kids with our arms stretched out going “voooooommmm…”
… or the RAAF on bicycles because they ran out of Spitfires …
Wireframe Elite. Oh those were the days! What a time to be alive. 
I played a similar game also on the zx spectrum. Early or mid 80’s? Monochrome only (or maybe that was just the screen I had)
Can’t remember what it was called though.
1 Like
Ed Link in 1929.
His system went on to be used to train pilots in WW2.
Plenty of info on him and his system on Google.
I saw one of these at The Imperial War Museum in Duxford many years ago.
2 Likes
Homebased flight simulation really took off with the release of MSFS version 3. The add-on market took off with MSFS version 4. I still fly both of them on occasion.
Here is a website totally dedicated to Flight Sim history:
4 Likes
Not sure of the name… But it ran on an 8088 had just green lines on the black screen and had only Megs field.
Here in the UK our RAF have adopted a new type of simulator for their formation flying.
2 Likes
Nope, I have not , not yet that is.
Maybe, some day, if I can make time, I will..
When I got the itch to go flight simming I had a Macintosh. It was an LCIII with a whopping 150MB hard drive. Now in so far as Mac sims go I believe I had the first for that OS called Fly! I believe it came out for Mac platform in 1999.
It featured a dark grey 737 likeness for AI and would just do as it pleased when flying, especially when landing at the same airfield you were. The other thing was that it required me to dump “big” files off my HD in order to simply play it each time which was a royal PITA.
Oh yeah, this was in the days of America Online for your internet portal, dial-up modem (…bing…bing…boing…screech…) and all files were non-resumable!
Ahhh…those were the days. Nostalgic? Yes. Miss ‘em? H*ll no!
Wow, Great thread indeed.
In the late '60’s my brother and I shared a bedroom. We used to sit on our beds with imaginary joysticks in our hands making all the relevant engine noises and squawking our radio messages to each other as we fought the Battle of Britain.
One of the most immersive flight simulators I ever came across!
2 Likes
Does anyone know if there’s a way to download the original Microsoft sim from 1982? I had that I think on Apple IIe but wondering if there’s an emulator or way to play that one again?
That flight sim history web page I posted (a few posts above) has very many of the old sims in convenient packages - just unzip and click to fly, emulators included, and works fine on win 10 64-bit.
The host of that site is very kind if your having any trouble, he has replied to my emails about broken links within a day or two and sent packages directly to me.
1 Like
Thanks aracines!!! I’ll check it out!
1 Like
I remember my grandad told me he was involved in the procurement of the first helicopter simulator, he’s done a short article about it on his aviation memoirs site:
British Airways Helicopters – Aberdeen 1967-1972 – A collection of articles from a 36 year career in aviation.
Very interesting read about the early days of aviation.
1 Like
Thanks @aracines I already knew this site, and it’s pure gold indeed.
I would like to add, there were also some good (and a few less good) simulators outside of the Microsoft realm. I would always name the Flight Unlimited Series, I and II still on my shelf, which was a milestone graphically and in ATC. But this was later (in the 1990-s) and doesn’t apply to the original question.
1 Like