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The document discusses the book 'Flight Simulation' edited by J.M. Rolfe and K.J. Staples, which serves as an introduction to the fundamentals of flight simulation, covering its applications in aerospace research and training. It highlights the importance of flight simulators in evaluating aircraft behavior and training aircrew, with over 500 simulators currently in use globally. The book includes contributions from various specialists to ensure factual accuracy across diverse topics related to flight simulation.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
36 views

Flight simulation J. M. Rolfe instant download

The document discusses the book 'Flight Simulation' edited by J.M. Rolfe and K.J. Staples, which serves as an introduction to the fundamentals of flight simulation, covering its applications in aerospace research and training. It highlights the importance of flight simulators in evaluating aircraft behavior and training aircrew, with over 500 simulators currently in use globally. The book includes contributions from various specialists to ensure factual accuracy across diverse topics related to flight simulation.

Uploaded by

nimzmpako
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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CAMBRIDGE
AEROSPACE
SERIES

Edited by J.M. Rolfe and K. J. Staples


Flight simulation
CAMBRIDGE AEROSPACE SERIES

Flight simulation

Edited by

J.M. ROLFE
Senior Principal Psychologist, Ministry of Defence

Kee DALLES
Royal Aircraft Establishment, Bedford

The right of the


University of Cambridge
to print and sell
all manner of books
was granted by
Henry VIII in 1534.
The University has printed
and published continuously
since 1564.

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS


Cambridge
New York Port Chester
Melbourne Sydney
Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP
40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011, USA
10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia

© Cambridge University Press 1986

First published 1986


First paperback edition 1988
Reprinted 1989, 1990

Printed in Great Britain at The Bath Press, Avon

British Library cataloguing in publication data


Flight simulation.
1. Flight simulators
I Rolie; Js Mo Il Staples; K2J-
629:132'52-078; TE7125

Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data


Flight simulation.
Bibliography
Includes index.
1. Flight simulators, I. Rolfe, J. M.
II. Staples, K. J.
ETA SES Aaa OS Om 629513 2,50 e2 28083

ISBN 0 521 30649 3 hardback


ISBN 0 521 35751 9 paperback


Contents

Preface
Introduction to flight simulation
Introduction
Definitions
The basic structure of flight simulation
1.3.1. The effect of an inadequate model
1.3.2. Effect of inadequate facilities
1.3.3. The effect of inappropriate application
The flight simulator: models and facilities x

—-
hve
Coon

A short history of the flight simulator


Introduction
Early efforts
The beginnings of a systematic approach
The simulator takes off
The electronic simulator
The modern simulator takes form
Mathematical models for flight simulation
Introduction
3.1.1. Basic concepts
3.1.2. Mathematical modelling versus stability and control
analysis
ore Elements of the model
She Equations of motion
Bele lire general equations
3.3.2. Small perturbation equations
3.3.3. Aircraft orientation
3.3.4. Kinematic relationships for Euler angles from body rates 46
3.3.5. The direction cosine matrix
3.3.6. The ‘four parameter’ or quaternion method
3.3.7. Axes and frames of reference
Vi Contents

3.3.8. Incidence angles


3.3.9. Direction angles
3.4 Representation of aerodynamic data
3.4.1. Background
3.4.2. Polynomial fits to data
3.4.3. The simple theory of table look-up
3.4.4. An example of a detailed model
Simulation of aircraft systems
Introduction
Instruments
Black Boxes
Intertial navigation system (INS)
4.4.1. Description
4.4.2. Simulation
4.4.3. Criteria
4.4.4. Conclusion
4.5 Flight management system
4.5.1. Description
4.5.2. Simulation
4.5.3. Criteria
4.5.4. Conclusion
4.6 Modelling
4.6.1. Component models
4.6.2. Input/output models
4.6.3. Mathematical models
4.6.4. Summary
4.7 Logic circuits
4.8 Radio aids
4.8.1. Ground station
4.8.2. Examples of ground station simulation
4.9 Engine design
4.9.1. Total output simulation method
4.9.2. Component simulation method
4.9.3. Typical method
4.10 Control loading
4.11 Sounds
4.11.1. Towards the future — digital synthesis
4.12 Hardware and software
4.12.1. Time
4.12.2. Simulator executive and rate sequencer
4.12.3. Memory
4.12.4. Global communication areas and input/output
4.12.5. Real-time subroutines
4.12.6. Real-time control of computing peripherals
COMenly

4A2Z7, Input/outpul
4\4 The use of microprocessors in Night simulation
5 Structures and cockpit systerns
SA Introduction
5.2 Mechanical and structural constraints
5.21. Platform services
a 4 ~~ Cockpit systems

S41, Instruments
5A Wetronic packaging
5.5 vmergency and saledy features
S51. Vire detection|/suppression
55.2. Lmergency Cuacuarion
55,3, Electrical codes

6 Motion systems
6) Introduction
6,2 Motion sensing and perception and their modelling
6,3 Production of motion am
633. Motion platform design
63,2, Motion platform drive signals
63.4, Non-platform motion-cucing devices
6.44, Motion platforms for training simulators
62,5. Motion platforms for engineering imulavors
64 Motion cue requirements
7 Visual systems
TA introduction
12 The psychophysics A visual perception
13 Visual system requirements for the airlines
1343. Hordwore for wrline visual simulation
1342. Computer image generation for the or lines
133, Certification reguremens for visual systems for the oirlines
14 Military visual simulation
TAA. Regurcwnetts
142. Hordwore for wilitary vieud sirwotion
143. Comper tage generation for wilitary sirolation

% Iatructor’s facilities
1 Introduction
Na) ;
B11. Role of te invtiructor
412. General regurcmests for the inaructors tition
$2 Design of the on-board insiructor’s station
$21. Design to meat the genoa regu cmetass
22 Smplemeaaion ond twxaan factors
£3 Design fA the Si-board instructor's siziion
831. Flight insructof s station
Vill Contents

8.3.2. Radar instructor’s station


Conclusions

Integration, testing and acceptance


Introduction
Hardware integration
Software integration
9.3.1. Software development and pre-integration testing
9.3.2. Software debug and integration
9.4 Hardware/software integration and testing
9.4.1. Environmental integration
9.4.2. Simulation module integration
9.4.3. Advanced avionics and tactical systems
9D Testing and acceptance
9.5.1. Evaluation testing and acceptance testing
9.5.2. In-house acceptance
9.5.3. On-site acceptance
9.5.4. Approvals
9.5.5. Acceptance testing
9.5.6. Configuration control and defect reporting
9.5.7. Automated test guides
9.5.8. Summary
The flight simulator as a research tool
Introduction
In-flight simulators — variable stability aircraft
Ground-based facilities: government/university
Ground-based facilities: industry
Data sources
Validation
Pilots
Two examples of research investigations using ground-based
flight simulators
. Research on flying qualities
A.1. Background
A.2. Measurement
A.3. Rolling requirements
A.4. Simulator standard
A.5. Experimental method
A.6. Results
A.7. Comment
. Research on advanced avionics
B.1. Background
B.2. Measurement
B.3. Simulator standard
B.4. Experimental method
Contents

B.5. Results
B.6. Comment
10.9 Concluding remarks
11 The flight simulator as a training device
11.1 Introduction
WD The advantages of simulation
Nels! Cost
11.4 Safety
ES Opportunity
11.6 Ecology
Wile7/The effectiveness of simulation
11.8 The customer’s role
WS) The legislator’s role
11.9.1. Evaluation procedures
11.10 The role of the training technologist
Js General conclusions
12 Résumé
I Introduction
12.2 The computer system
123 Physiological stimulation
12.3.1. The motion system
12.3.2. Visual systems
12.4 Other challenges
12.4.1. Instructor operating stations
12.4.2. Complex aircraft systems
12.4.3. Applications
IDES) Concluding remarks
References
Index
To the memories of Wladyslaw Sluckin (late Professor of Psychology, the
University of Leicester, England )and Svante Skans (late Director, LUT AB,
Sweden).Two wise friends whose enthusiasm and encouragement is embodied
in this book.
Preface

The idea of producing a textbook to introduce the subject of flight


simulation is a long held ambition we have both cherished. Three influences
led to its becoming a reality; the encouragement ofour fellow enthusiasts in
the Flight Simulation Group of the Royal Aeronautical Society, the
initiative of the Cambridge University Press in commissioning the book to
form one ofthe first titles in its revived Aerospace Series and the willingness
of the Ministry of Defence to allow us to prepare the book, while wishing it
to be understood that they do not necessarily endorse its contents.
We are well aware of the wide range of scientific and engineering
disciplines encompassed by flight simulation. We have sought to provide a
sound basic description of each of the many facets of the subject, with
bibliographical pointers to further, more detailed information. However, in
view ofthe diversity of topics, we also thought it prudent to enlist the help of
specialist contributors to ensure factual accuracy. We are indebted to the
following friends and colleagues for their contributions to the chapters of
this book.
Arthur Barnes (Chief Simulation Engineer, British Aerospace, Warton
Division, England) for the chapter on the use of flight simulators in
research.
Martin Bolton(Lecturer in Microelectronics at Bristol University, England)
for the chapter on the history of flight simulation.
John C. Dusterberry (formerly of the NASA Ames Research Center,
California, USA) for the chapter on motion systems.
Brian P. Hampson & Maxwell L. Rutherford (respectively Manager, Project
Engineering and Manager Flight Simulator Systems Engineering, CAE,
Montreal, Canada) for the chapter on the integration, testing and
acceptance of simulators.
Xl Preface

Brian Lynch (Chief Engineer, Flight Simulation Division, Singer Link-


Miles, Lancing, England) for the chapter on simulator structures and
cockpit systems.
John H. Marsden (Manager, Systems Engineering Department, Rediffusion
Simulation, Crawley, England) and his colleagues for the chapter on the
simulation of aircraft systems.
Malcolm E. Roberts (Rediffusion Simulation, Crawley, England) for the
chapter on the design of instructor facilities.
A. Michael Spooner (formerly Head of Advanced Simulation Concepts
Laboratory, Naval Training Equipment Center, Florida, USA) for the
chapter on visual systems.
Barry Tomlinson (Head of Advanced Informatics Research and formerly
Head of Flight Simulator Trials, Royal Aircraft Establishment, Bedford,
England) for the chapter on mathematical models for flight simulation.
Bill Wooden (formerly Chief Inspector of Flight Operations, UK Civil
Aviation Authority) for the chapter on the use of flight simulators in
training.

The result of this international partnership is contained in the following


pages. It encapsulates the spirit of collaboration and good fellowship that
abounds within the flight simulation community.

John M. Rolfe & Ken J. Staples


May 1986
An introduction to flight simulation

“1 Introduction
While not neglecting the applications of flight simulation, the
principal objective of this book is to provide an introduction to the
fundamentals of flight simulation and the elements that contribute to the
construction and operation of the modern simulator.
As its name implies the object of flight simulation is to reproduce on the
ground the behaviour of an aircraft in flight. The practical value of flight
simulation can be judged by the extensive use of the technique in aerospace
research and development and by the fact that more than 500 flight
simulators are in use, throughout the world, for training and maintaining
the skills of civilian and military aircrew.
When used for research, flight simulators allow designers to explore the
implications ofdifferent design options without having to incur the expense
and delay arising from building and testing a range of prototypes. Examples
are the extensive use of flight simulation in the design and testing of the
Concorde supersonic airliner and the role played by simulation in the
manned space programme.
Flight simulation has provided a means of evaluating the likely
behaviour and consequences arising from abnormal operating con-
figurations. Solutions to handling problems associated with deep stall, clear
air turbulence and, recently, wind shear have all been worked through with
the aid of simulators. _
Flight simulation has established for itselfasignificant position in the ab
initio and advanced training of aircrew. The market for simulators is world
wide and annual expenditure on new devices involves millions of pounds.
Nevertheless, hard-headed commercial operators and efficiency conscious
air forces are prepared to argue five major advantages accruing from the use
of simulators in training. These are:
2 An introduction to flight simulation

increased efficiency, as training will not be interfered with by


factors such as adverse weather conditions, airspace limitations or
aircraft availability
increased safety whilst training, coupled with the ability to
control the level of task demand applied during training
lower overall training costs
the facility to practise situations which for reasons of expense,
safety and practicability cannot be rehearsed in the real world
the reduction in operational and environmental disturbance.
These successful applications of flight simulation can be used as the
justification for the expenditure of thought and other precious resources on
arriving at a greater understanding of the factors which go to make for
effective simulation. Whilst accepting this to be so it may also be argued,
with justification, that flight simulation, as an area of knowledge and
technology, is independent of its potential applications. Scans & Barnes
(1979) pointed to the fact that, while flight simulators have existed for more
than half a century, most of the advantages and benefits from simulation
have only occurred since the mid 1960s.
The aim of setting out to create a representation of flight which is
indistinguishable from the real thing has been a sufficient challenge and for
some practitioners in simulation the pursuit of this goal has earned them
the facetious title ‘the kings of toyland’. Nevertheless flight simulation is
worthy of study for its own sake for, as later sections of this book will show,
it has resulted in greater understanding of the process of manned flight and
acted as the stimulus to innovation and invention in fields as disparate as
computer graphics, hydraulics and human skills analysis.

1.2 Definitions
Simulation can take a variety of forms and it is therefore essential
to define the scope of this book. A common feature of all simulations is that
they attempt to provide an operating imitation of a real activity. Just how
this is achieved will vary with the nature of the simulation. The economist
and operational analyst may create numerical simulations totally within a
computer while the earth scientist or hydrographer may use dynamic
physical representations of parts of the environment. These two examples
represent the different levels of abstraction which can be contained within
the use of simulation. A further dimension is the level of human
involvement that occurs within the simulation. One extreme is represented
by the computer simulation case while the other by management, or
command and control decision making simulations which involve people
as participants in and controllers of, the simulation.
1.2 Definitions 3

This book is about the design and operation of devices with low levels of
abstraction and high levels of human involvement whose purpose is to
simulate the behaviour of an aerospace vehicle. Aviation does use other
forms of simulation but these will not be dealt with in any detail here. The
essential form of flight simulation is the creation of a dynamic repre-
sentation of the behaviour of an aircraft in a manner which allows the
human operator to interact with the simulation as a part of the simulation.
The form of simulation dealt with here involves the combination of
science, technology and art to create artificial realism for the purpose of
research, training and pleasure. This statement identifies two streams of
influence in the development of flight simulation. Firstly, the creation
of simulations is as much an art as it is a science and technology. Secondly,
the purpose for which the simulation may be employed can be both creative
i.e. improve aeronautical design and operating proficiency, and re-
creational, i.e. provide enjoyment by having created a simulation which can
give pleasure and satisfaction.
The streams of influence and application referred to above can be seen
to be present in the historical development and current state of flight
simulation. As an example of the combination of art, science, and
technology to achieve effective simulation Tabs (1964) described how, at
the start of the Second World War, theatrical set designers were called upon
to collaborate in designing training simulators for navy torpedo attack
pilots operating against enemy shipping.
Still in the context of the evolution of flight simulators an example of the
pleasure or purpose dichotomy is the dilemma faced by Edwin Link, the
inventor of the Link Trainer, as to whether his device would have more
attraction to flying schools or amusement parks (Kelly & Parke 1970).
These design and use features remain as influences in the present day
context of flight simulation practices and applications. In the development
of new techniques, particularly those associated with the representation of
the visual world using computer generated graphics, the influence of the
artist in representing texture and accurate patterns of light and shadow is
clearly important. At the same time the advent of the micro computer and
its ready adoption as an adult toy has resulted in the creation of flight
simulator game packages that offer recreation and challenge but do not set
out to teach the user to fly.
Clearly then, flight simulation presents a multidisciplinary challenge to
skill and ingenuity. This position has been described most succinctly by a
former Chief Test Pilot of the British Civil Aviation Authority (Davis 1975).

Flight simulation is a fascinating and challenging field of science. It


encompasses a wide field of disciplines from hydraulics and
4 An introduction to flight simulation

electronics to aerodynamics, performance and optics as well as a


massive contribution in terms of human engineering. The biggest
challenge is the overcoming of the limitations of not being able to
establish all the root equations of motions as fundamental
parameters and the need to cook the system so that these
compromises are not significant. In many ways working with
simulators is much more demanding than working with real
aeroplanes.

1.3 The basic structure of flight simulation


A simulation may be considered as comprising of three parts.
These are, a model of the system to be simulated, a device through which the
model is implemented and an applications régime in which the first two
elements are combined with a technique of usage to satisfy a particular
objective.
A model as its name implies is a representation, actual or theoretical, of
the structure or dynamics of a thing or process (Abt 1964). Models may take
one ofthree forms: physical, analog or linguistic. An example of a physical
model is a scale model of an aircraft used for aerodynamic tests in a wind
tunnel. An example of an analog model is a recorded sequence of electrical
signals representing turbulence. This is used to vary the amplitude of
movement of a bank of hydraulic jacks moving a specimen wing section of
an aircraft during fatigue tests. The most usual form of linguistic model
encountered in simulation is the mathematical description of the behaviour
of a system in terms of a number of equations. A mathematical repre-
sentation of an aircraft and its dynamic response forms the basic model
used with contemporary flight simulators. In every one of the three model
forms identified above a wide variety of models will be found. For example,
verbal models of aircraft operations can play a useful role in teaching a
student procedural and emergency drills. These linguistic problem-setting
models put the student into a decision-making situation in which he must
decide what course of action to take in response, for example, to a fire
warning light in the cockpit. While the above classification of models has a
wide acceptance there is also agreement that the boundaries between types
are diffuse and that they form a continuous spectrum starting with exact
physical mock ups and extending to completely abstract mathematical
models.
The operating device is the element in the simulation through which the
model is operated and evaluated. As the above examples show the
Operating device can take any number of forms ranging from a wind tunnel
to a programmed book. However, in the context of this book the operating
1.3 The basic structure of flight simulation 5

device will be the flight simulator and it will, inevitably, appear as the most
apparent facet of the simulation. However, the model is essential. Without
an adequate or representative model the simulator would either be inert or
inaccurate.
The operating régime is the application for which the simulation is
intended. Once again there are a variety of applications. Elmaghraby (1968)
has listed five common uses of models and simulations:
(1) as an aid to thought
(2) as an aid to communication
(3) for purposes of training and instruction
(4) as a tool for prediction
(5) as an aid to experimentation
The need to pay attention to the technique of usage is important because
the simulation will rarely be a perfect representation of reality. The task, or
set of functions, for which the simulation is used is thus constrained and
elements of the real-life task may themselves have to be distorted to
allow a valid solution to the aim of the simulation.
The interrelatedness of the three elements representing a simulation is
not sequential, with the model determining the choice of facility and the
facility deciding the application. The elements will be looked at in this order
in the following chapters of this book because it forms a logical way of
looking at the elements offlight simulation. The ability to create an effective
model, and the nature of the model, will have a direct influence upon the
choice offacility to operate the model. But, it is also important to stress that
when a simulation is being created for a specific application the intended
use must be taken in account when selecting the model upon which to base
the simulation.
Decisions about the choice and content of the model and the associated
device are an aspect of that facet of simulation practice which has already
been described as being in some part an art. Shannon (1975) emphasises this
as a key point in simulation when he says:
The tendency is nearly always to simulate too much detail rather
than too little. Thus, one should always design the model around
the questions to be answered rather than imitate the real system
exactly. Pareto’s law says that in every group or collection there
exists a vital few and a trivial many. Nothing really significant
happens unless it happens to the vital few. The tendency among
systems analysts has too often been to transfer all the detailed
difficulties in the real situation into the model, hoping that the
computer will solve their problems. This approach is unsatisfac-
6 An introduction to flight simulation

tory not only because of the increased difficulty of programming


the model and the additional cost of longer experimental runs, but
also because the truly significant aspects and relationships may get
lost in all the trivial details. Therefore, the model must include only
those aspects of the system relevant to the study objectives.
Clearly Shannon’s advice is directed toward those who would use
simulations for research. However, in relation to the use of flight simulators
for training his view is complemented by Prophet, Caro & Hall (1971) who
remark that:
If the aircraft is a poor learning environment, and for many flight
related skills it is one of the poorest imaginable — then a ground
based duplicate of that environment will not necessarily be a better
one in which to learn.
The above advice makes plain the point that not only must a thorough
examination of the application be undertaken before deciding upon
simulation as the solution but also that the choice of what elements to
include in the simulation must be made with care. If these steps are not
taken then it is possible to expend much time and effort on creating
simulations which do not meet the requirements. The foilowing three
examples show how simulations can fail to meet expectations; they should
not be thought of as bad simulations, rather as demonstrations of how hard
it is to produce a simulation which meets requirements.

1.321 The effect of an inadequate model


At one stage in the development of the Concorde supersonic
airliner, interest was centred upon the aircraft’s operational integration
into air traffic control patterns. One task was to find out how Concorde
could be fitted into traffic flow if, because of an engine failure, it was
necessary to descend to a lower altitude and into the airspace normally
occupied by subsonic aircraft. To examine this a complex exercise was set
up in which a trans-Atlantic flight was flown in the Concorde simulator.
This flight was to be injected into actual trans-Atlantic air traffic patterns.
In essence a ghost Concorde was to fly across the Atlantic. To achieve this a
link was established between the Concorde simulator and the air traffic
control computers handling the actual movements of aircraft between
Europe and the United States.
The scenario for the exercise was that an experienced flight development
crew from one of the airlines which would be operating Concorde would fly
the simulator. They were not told that an engine failure would be simulated
soon after they had reached cruising altitude to the west of Ireland. At
1.3 The basic structure offlight simulation fl

that point the expectation was that the captain would declare an emergency
and ask to be allowed to descend in order to continue the flight at subsonic
speed, something the aircraft was capable of doing. This was the point at
which lessons were to be learned and the object of the simulation.
The exercise commenced and at the correct point in the flight the
simulator operator injected the engine failure. The captain of the Concorde
reacted immediately to the incident by taking all the necessary steps to close
down the engine and prevent a fire. He then declared his situation to ATC
and asked for assistance to return to Heathrow Airport at London. This he
did.
In the subsequent debrief the captain was asked why he did not continue
with the trans-Atlantic flight at subsonic speed and lower altitude. His
answer was that, while this was possible, he knew there were no spare
engines at the diversion airfield in North America. He therefore decided
that the correct course of action was to return to London so that a new
engine could be fitted. In this way the aircraft would be back in service with
less delay.
The incident did not invalidate the objects of the study and it produced
an outcome which, although not what was expected, was nevertheless a
valid one. It emphasised the importance of ensuring that the model for the
simulation contained all the relevent information required to produce an
appropriate simulation. When the added factor of engine availability was
understood it was possible to repeat the exercise with the crews knowing in
advance that simulated spare parts were present on the other side of the
Atlantic.

1.3.2 Effect of inadequate facilities


The 1960s saw the introduction of the commercial passenger
carrying jets such as the Boeing 707. These aircraft flew higher than their
predecessors and their operators for the first time encountered the effect
known as clear air turbulence. This turbulence was not associated with any
observable cloud condition, it was violent and it could generate severe
handling problems. Crews were trained to deal with the turbulence in flight
simulators which, at that time, were fixed base devices, that is, they did
not provide any physical motion cues. In one incident an American airliner
encountered clear air turbulence and descended ‘quickly’ through 25000
feet before the crew were able to regain control. The aircraft was fitted with
a flight data recorder and it was possible to reconstruct the pattern of
disturbance leading up to the loss of control. The flight was then reflown in
a training simulator using a number of experienced flight crews. They had
no difficulty in dealing with the situation without losing control of the
8 An introduction to flight simulation

aircraft. The flight was then reproduced on a sophisticated research


simulator which could simulate the physical motions associated with the
turbulence. Now a marked change in the crews’ performance took place.
The motion created a false illusion of climbing when the aircraft was in fact
already descending. As a result the crews moved the controls in the wrong
direction and increased the rate of descent. The study showed that, when
motion was present, the crews in the simulator behaved in the same way as
the crew in the aircraft. However, this was only so for the first run in the
simulator. Once the disturbing motion effect has been experienced and
understood the crews adjusted their behaviour to deal appropriately with
the situation. The lesson learnt from this study was that for some levels of
simulator training the presence of disturbance motion cues is essential if
effective training is to take place. Subsequent to that study it became widely
accepted that training simulators should be fitted with motion systems.

133 The effect of inappropriate application


Other areas of application have their problems as well as flight
simulation. This example is taken from the use of simulators to train the
masters of supertankers to familiarise themselves with manoeuvering the
vessels, For this purpose a major oil company which operated supertankers
constructed a 1:25 scale representation of an oil terminal and its
approaches. In this scale world tanker masters could manoeuvre realistic
models of supertankers constructed to the same scale and large enough to
accommodate the trainee master. However, in order to give the operator
effective control over the scale model it had to move about the 1:25 world
with a timescale of 5:1 compared with the full size tanker. When a
validation study was conducted it was found that training in the 5: |
timescale has no positive transfer of skill to the 1 : 1 situation and that
incorrect relationships between command and response were being
learned.
In this case the lesson is an important one that methods of simulation
appropriate for some applications may not be suitable in others. As a result
of the study referred to above training was moved from the reduced scale
device to a full-scale simulation in a ship-handling simulator.

1.4 The flight simulator: models and facilities


The earliest attempts at flight simulation employed devices which
demonstrated the effects of control movement on the behaviour of an
aircraft. To achieve this a rudimentary representation of an aircraft was
mounted, out of doors, on a system of pivots. It relied upon airflow over
1.4 The flight simulator: models andfacilities 9

control surfaces generated by the wind to create and sustain the simulation.
In this case there was a limited pragmatic model with the essence of the
simulation being in the device, the tethered airframe and in the environment
(Haward 1910).
The next chapter will review the technological history of flight simu-
lation. One important point is that the model has gone through a number of
transformations before arriving at the mathematical representation of flight
dynamics which is the basis for contemporary simulation techniques. The
ability to express the behaviour of an aeroplane and its major internal
systems by means of a series of equations existed long before an
implementing device was available to rapidly translate mathematical
calculations into a representation of flight. This became possible with the
advent of the computer. When this capability presented itself two ensuing
developments resulted. Firstly, the scope and magnitude of the model could
be greatly extended. Secondly, because the model was being implemented
using a device which used electrical pulses, initially in analogue and
subsequently in digital form, it opened the way to the development of
enhancements to the implementing device.
Consider first the extension of the model. The aircraft model is the
nucleus of the simulation and within it there will be contained submodels
representing the handling characteristics of the airframe, engines and
manual and automatic control systems. Also present will be a further range
of submodels for display and communications systems. Lastly the aircraft
model will contain a subset relating role functions; for example with a
fighter aircraft there will be weapons models.
For the simulation, the aircraft model must operate within a simulated
environment. The extent of that environment will be determined by further
models. Once again the scope for modelling has changed significantly. In
early simulations the simulated aircraft operated in a relatively un-
structured and limited environment. Flying was done on instruments and
the dimensions of the world were represented by radio beacons and other
fixed location navigational aids. With the capabilities of the modern digital
computer it is possible to create detailed air and ground environments
within and over which the aircraft model can be translated.
The air environment model will contain representations of meteorolo-
gical conditions and other aircraft which may be seen and heard. The
ground environment model will contain a terrain model which will be
enhanced by specific features: models of towns, arrival and departure
airfields and, for military applications, potential targets. A radio navigation
model will be expanded to include an inertial navigation model and an air
traffic control model.
10 An introduction to flight simulation

A simple representation of the above formulation of models for flight


simulation is shown in Fig. 1.1.
It will be obvious that while the three component models are identified
separately they must work together in order to create a representative
simulation. For example the aircraft model will compute height,
heading and attitude. This information will be used by the air environment
model together with its own weather conditions model to determine the
slant range visibility to the ground. In turn this data will be used in

Fig. 1.1. Diagramatic representation of the three principal models contained


within a flight simulation.

Air environment model

Aircraft
model

Ground environment model

Fig. 1.2. Simple representation of the principal elements of a flight simulator.

Outside
visual
world
Visual
displays
Audio External
displays audio
world
Automatic
control
systems
Aircraft
Controls
motion

Simulator computer hosting


the aircraft, ground and air
environment models
1.4 The flight simulator: models and facilities 1]

conjunction with the ground model to determine what terrain features can
be seen from the aircraft.
The second advantage that accrues from the use of acomputer as the host
for the simulation model is the ability to extend the sophistication of the
implementing device. The extent of this ex pansion is shown ina simple form
in Fig. 1.2.
Early simulation was confined to reproducing the dynamic behaviour of
the aircraft via the basic controls and displays within the cockpit. However,
with increased computing capacity and improved electromechanical
facilities much higher levels of simulation are possible in terms of realism, or
fidelity with the real world.
Inside the cockpit the simulator engineer has been able to keep up with
developments in aircraft instrumentation and avionics. This has been aided
by the greater use of electronics in the cockpit so that differences between
the simulated and the actual instrument have been reduced. For example in
the era of the direct pressure-driven altimeter the simulator engineer had to
construct a totally different drive mechanism for the simulated altimeter.
With the advent of the servo-driven and computer generated altitude
displays it is possible to use the actual displays driven by electrical signals
generated by the interface to the simulator computer instead of the air data
computer.
The ability to reproduce what goes on inside the cockpit and how the
aircraft handles under manual and automatic flight control is one facet of
the increased capability available to the simulator designer. The second,
and equally as significant a development, is the ability to reproduce in
greater breadth the behaviour of the aircraft in relation to the external
world. This capability shows itself in three major areas: the provision of
cockpit motion, and the representation of both the external visual and
audio environments.
The motion of an aircraft in flight can be considered in relation to the
three rotational axes and the three translational axes. Motion systems
providing movement along all six axes are now in use. Although opinion is
divided as to the extent of the motion that is really essential there is
agreement that motion plays an important role in the simulation of flight.
Equally challenging is the ability to provide a representation of the ex-
ternal visual scene from the cockpit. The task is to provide sufficient detail
together with both field and depth of view to allow a pilot to perform tasks
which require rapid and accurate assimilation of information from the
outside world. Examples of situations where an accurate representation of
the external world can be vital are for visual approaches and landings and
for very low level ‘nap of the earth’ flying in military helicopters. It is also
12 An introduction to flight simulation

important to be able to degrade the visual scene in order to simulate poor


visibility and other weather conditions.
The provision of motion and visual cues for flight simulators highlights
another aspect of the designer’s task. This is that, as the devices are intended
for use with human operators, a knowledge of the physiological and
psychological factors influencing the sensation and perception of motion
and visual stimuli is important. Thus another knowledge dimension is
introduced into the simulation arena.
The external audio environment is important for its ability to create the
illusion of the presence of other traffic competing for both airspace and
audio transmission time —a contributor to aircrew workload. The pro-
blems with the simulation of this aspect offlight are not as great as those of
the motion and external visual dimensions. Nevertheless there are unique
features which present their own difficulties. One aspect of the audio
environment is the representation of aircraft-generated noises. The most
obvious of these is engine noise, but tyre squeal, runway rumble,
undercarriage retraction/extension and locking and pre-stall noise are
examples of sounds that must be reproduced. These noises not only convey
important information to the crew, they also mask noises generated by
components of the simulator, for example the motion system. A major
problem is the ability to create a flexible and responsive audio trans-
missions scenario which can adapt to unexpected changes in a simulated
flight. One way of achieving this is to have simulator staff play the role of
other aircraft and air traffic controllers. This labour intensive remedy is
only partially successful and the solution may lie with the application of
voice synthesis technologies.
The representation of the basic elements of the flight simulator, as they
appear in Fig. 1.2, shows only those features which contribute to the
simulation of a particular vehicle. An important additional part of the
facility, which is not present in the aircraft being simulated, is the provision
of a control station from which the simulation will be operated. The form
the controllers’ station will take is dependent upon the role of the simulator.
If the device is a training simulator the instructor will need to have a
workstation that allows him to perform the functions of providing training
as well as being able to set up and control the behaviour of the simulator.
The elements that comprise the flight simulator require specialised design
skills and fundamental knowledge. Equally important and specialised is the
ability to integrate all the subelements to create a device which not only
looks like an actual aeroplane from inside the cockpit but which also
responds like it? Moreover, if the simulator is to be used for training in the
commercial aviation field the process of element integration is one which
1.4 The flight simulator: models andfacilities 13

will not only have to satisfy the demands ofthe intending purchaser but also
those of a legislative authority, such as the Civil Aviation Authority in the
United Kingdom, who will have the responsibility for approving the use of
the simulator for training.
The major part of this book will be devoted to a consideration of the
methods of modelling flight and the means of implementing the model to
create a flight simulator. The third aspect of the subject is the application of
simulation. While it was stated earlier that this topic was not the principal
purpose of the book it does deserve some attention. The potential value of a
device which could represent the behaviour of an aircraft in flight on the
ground was recognised more than sixty years ago by Reid & Burton (1924).
They concluded that such devices, if they could be constructed, could be
used to:
(1) test the ability of subjects to fly and land successfully
(2) assess the rate of acquisition of flying skills
(3) train pupils on those particular coordinations necessary for
aircraft control
(4) classify subjects for different forms of flying service
All of these predictions have been fulfilled and flight simulators play an
effective part in flying training. The flight simulator’s value as a research
tool is also recognised. The applications of simulators, in research and
training, will be considered in later sections of the book. However, the
objective in the present context will not be to provide a comprehensive
analysis of applications but, rather, to identify some of the fundamental
issues which have to be taken into account when seeking to utilise flight
simulations.
The editors hope that this book will convey an appreciation and
understanding of the multidisciplinary nature of flight simulation, science,
technology and art. Other authors have drawn comparisons between the
skill of the stage illusionist and the flight simulator specialist. There are
undoubted similiarities, both seek to deceive the senses and to convince the
observer that what is being experienced is real rather than a simulacrum of
reality. However, the major and fundamental difference is that whereas the
illusionist performs to an audience the practitioner in flight simulation
must convince human participants who are themselves part of the simu-
lation. Therein lies the challenge, the reward and the satisfaction.
ue
A short history of the flight
simulator

2.1 Introduction
An account of the development of the technology of flight simu-
lation would not be as narrow in scope as it would at first sight appear.
Flight simulation has made immediate use of advances in technology
throughout its 75-year history and indeed, its demands have more than
once spurred new developments in the supporting technologies.
These demands have always been to produce as faithful a reproduction as
possible of the behaviour of an aircraft — both of types already in use and of
those still in development. This short review will focus on the evolution of
techniques for flight simulation using for illustration examples of devices
which best represent the major steps in their evolution. The majority of
these were built for training purposes, although of course flight simulation
includes machines built for engineering and psychological research. Most
of these latter are omitted from this account for reasons of space, as are
simulators built for training in the non-piloting tasks of aircrews, such as
navigation, radio operation and gunnery.

DEY: Early efforts


Before the first public flight by the Wright brothers in 1908, it
was widely believed that a powered aeroplane would be as stable a vehicle
as an airship, one which could be flown without previously acquired skills
(Hooven 1978). However, their aeroplane depended on the operator for its
equilibrium — flight would be impossible until a particular set of skills had
been learnt. The successors of the Wright aeroplanes were just as difficult to
fly, each one having its own, potentially fatal, idiosyncrasies (Robinson
1973). A logical approach to teaching at least some of the skills required was
to use an example of the real aircraft, but safely linked to the ground. An
2.2 Early efforts 15

early example of this was the Sanders Teacher, introduced in 1910. A piece
in Flight stated: (Haward 1910)
The invention, therefore, of a device which will enable the novice to
obtain a clear conception of the workings of the control of an
aeroplane, and of the conditions existent in the air, without any
risk personally or otherwise, is to be welcomed without a doubt.
Several have already been constructed to this end, and the Sanders
Teacher is the latest to enter the field.
The Sanders Teacher was a modified aeroplane mounted on a universal
joint linked to the ground. In it the student could learn the control
movements necessary to maintain equilibrium. Of course such a device
depended on a satisfactory supply of wind and relied on gusts to produce
disturbances. Another example was that ofthe Italian Gabardini company,
who produced a captive version of their monoplane, based on the same
principle, for teaching the use of the controls (Janes 1919). The idea ofusing
a captive aeroplane for elementary training or for amusement was patented
in Britain by Eardley Billing (Billing, 1910). His device, which was available
at Brooklands Aerodrome, was in fact not an adapted aeroplane but a
purpose-built machine (Fig. 2.1). The control column operated planes

Fig. 2.1. A trainer of the Billing type. (Courtesy Flight International.)


16 A short history of the flight simulator

which enabled equilibrium to be kept and the rudder bar was connected to
the base to allow the machine to be rotated to face the wind.
A variation ofthis principle, one which did not rely on the wind, was also
frequently tried in these early days of flying. These devices relied on an
instructor to provide the disturbances while the student would attempt to
maintain equilibrium by manipulation of controls connected through wires
and pulleys to the base. Walters’ machine was of this type (Walters 1910).
An improvement on this solved the problem of the student having to act in
direct opposition to the disturbance forces applied by the instructor, by
adding a second universal joint. In the Antoinette ‘apprenticeship barrel’
illustrated in Fig. 2.2 two instructors are required and the universal joints
are provided by barrels. Even though these contrivances did not require a
breeze for operation, their training value must have been even less, or
perhaps even negative, due to their immediate response to control
movements by the student.
With World War I and the development of military aviation the first
requirement arose for teaching rapidly the skills of flying to large numbers
of people. Simulation had virtually no impact. In Britain the training
system devised by Smith-Barry emphasised actual flying from the earliest
stage. In France, where the Blériot system was used, the pupil advanced
through a planned evolutionary sequence (Winter 1982). His first ex-
perience was at the controls of a ‘Penguin’, a monoplane with sawn-off
wings capable of hopping at about 40 mph down the ‘frogs meadow’
(Winslow 1917). The penguin idea was well known even before the war, but
the French seem to be the only ones to have used it in serious training.
The need to reduce the wastage rate in World War I flying taining
encouraged the growth of the discipline of aviation psychology. Many of
the tests for flying aptitude developed by these psychologists required the

Fig. 2.2. Antoinette trainer.


2.3 The beginnings of a systematic approach 17,

development of devices intended to measure performance in certain tasks


thought to represent essential flying skills. Two popular types of test were
those of reaction time and coordination. In 1915, a machine of the former
type was proposed — this consisted ofarocking fuselage fitted with controls
and an electrical recording apparatus in which the response ofthe subject to
tilting manually produced by the examiner would be recorded (Anderson
1919). Amongst many other examples, only the work of Reid and Burton
will be cited (Reid & Burton 1924). This was an electrically controlled
apparatus mounted in a dummy cockpit and which could record the time
taken for the subject to restore an attitude display to its central indication.
It was mistakenly believed during this period that the vestibular
apparatus enabled a person to sense orientation in the air as well as on the
ground (Robinson 1973). It was later realised that orientation depends
largely on vision. A device built on the earlier theory was the Ruggles
Orientator (Ruggles 1917, 1918). This consisted of a seat mounted within a
gimbal ring assembly which enabled full rotation of the pupil in all three
axes in addition to providing vertical movement. All motions were
produced by electric motors in response to movements of the student’s and
instructor/examiner’s sticks and rudder bars. This device was stated to be
useful for ‘developing and training the functions of the semi-circular canals
and incidentally to provide such a machine for training aviators to
accustom themselves to any possible position in which they may be moved
by the action of an aeroplane while in flight.’ A further optimistic claim was
that the aviator could be blindfolded ‘so that the sense of direction may be
sensitized without the assistance of the visual senses. In this way the aviator
when in fog or intense darkness may be instinctively conscious of his
position’.

2:3 The beginnings of a systematic approach


To a simulation engineer, a faithful simulation requires the
following three elements:

(1) a complete model, preferably expressed mathematically, of the


response of the aircraft to all inputs, from the pilot and from the
environment
(2) a means of solving these equations in ‘real-time’, or in other
words, of animating the model
(3) a means of presenting the output of this solution to the pilot by
means of mechanical, visual and aural responses
None of these has yet been completely solved, if judged by the strictest
engineering criteria — whether or not they need to be is another question.
18 A short history of the flight simulator

Enough knowledge had been gained of the mechanics of flight by about


1920 to produce a reasonable mathematical model of flight (Bairstow 1920),
but no means yet existed to translate a complete model into a usable
simulation. The early automatic controllers produced by Sperry and others
relied on an empirical understanding of aircraft behaviour and practical
testing rather than simulation (Bennett 1979). However, evolution of
the technology of automatic control provided the basis for improved
simulation; all of the elements—sensors, actuators and computing

Fig. 2.3. Lender and Heidelberg inventions. (Courtesy Controller HMSO.)


2.3 The beginnings of a systematic approach 19

mechanisms — were common to both disciplines. As in Sperry’s work,


computing mechanisms could be built and adjusted relying on a practical
understanding of how systems behaved. This was the approach in the first
attempts at simulation.
One of these was that of Lender and Heidelberg described in patents of
1917 and 1918 (Lender & Heidelberg 1917, 1918). In their invention, the
motions of a cockpit balanced on a support were produced in three axes by
compressed air actuators. A new feature was a simulation of the effects of
speed. Fore and aft motions of the stick were integrated pneumatically to
result in the mechanical displacement of a rod, which in turn acted on the
controls to alter their effect. The illustrations (Fig. 2.3) show two examples
of their ideas in which a propellor is used for additional realism. A
projection apparatus was outlined for producing a visual display, but only
in sketchy detail.
This line of development continued, the features being a pivoted cockpit,
actuators able to produce motion in three axes in response to stick and
rudder, and some means of introducing disturbances. In all cases the
intention was to reproduce the ‘feel’ of the aeroplane. Most could not
approach this because of the crude or non-existent dynamic simulation.
One which got nearer than most was the Link Trainer.
Edwin Link gained his early engineering experience with his father’s firm,
the Link Piano and Organ Company of Binghamton, New York, and in fact
Link’s first patent was granted for an improvement in the mechanism of
player pianos (Kelly 1970). The trainer was developed in the period 1927—
29 in the basement of the Link factory and made use of pneumatic
mechanisms familiar from the piano and organ business. The first trainer,
advertised as ‘an efficient aeronautical training aid —a novel, profitable
amusement device’ was described in a patent filed in 1930 (Link 1930).
Pitch, roll and yaw movements were initiated in the same manner as in its
predecessors, but pneumatic bellows were used for actuation. An electri-
cally driven suction pump mounted in the fixed base fed the various control
valves operated by the stick and rudder, while another motor-driven device
produced a repeated sequence of attitude disturbances. Link worked for a
long period, adjusting the performance by trial and error, until he achieved
a satisfactory feel.
The first description of the trainer (Fig. 2.4) made no reference to
instruments; the device was primarily intended to demonstrate to students
the effect of the controls on the attitude of the simulated aeroplane and to
train them in their coordinated operation. The simulated effects of the
ailerons, elevators and rudder were independent. They did not represent the
interactions present in the real aeroplane. Also, because of the direct cause
20 A short history of the flight simulator

and effect link between the controls and the actuators, its motion served to
indicate attitude rather than to provide correct motion cues.
Link had a difficult job convincing people that his device was worth the
investment. It may have had a more realistic feel to it than its predecessors,
but it was still not seen to meet a real training need. Such a need did exist,
however, in instrument flying. This requirement demanded a more
analytical approach to simulation — a model of the aircraft behaviour had
to be set up first.
Every flight training device described so far has had a movable cockpit
indeed this was generally the sole function of the simulator. Given that this
form of motion is not useful motion cue, a simulator providing instrument
displays can dispense with it altogether. This was, in fact, done in all
succeeding trainers except the Link until the era of true motion cue
simulation.
Rougerie’s patent of 1928 (Rougerie 1928) describes a simple trainer,
fixed to the ground, consisting ofa student’s seat facing an instrument panel
and two sets of controls, one each for the student and instructor. The
student’s flight instruments are directly connected to the instructor’s
controls. The student would fly the trainer in response to commands from
the instructor, who modifies the instrument readings according to the

Fig. 2.4. The first Link.


2.3 The beginnings of a systematic approach Pah

student’s actions. A more automated version of this scheme can be seen in


Johnson’s invention of 1931 (Johnson 1931). W.E.P. Johnson, an instructor
at the Central Flying School, Wittering, and one of the pioneers of
instrument flying in Britain, constructed his trainer from a written-off Avro
504 fuselage (Taylor 1958). In the simplest form ofthis invention an airspeed
indicator, turn indicator and bank indicator were directly operated by wires
attached to the sticks and rudder bars of student and instructor. Further
improvements included a throttle control affecting the airspeed indicator
and integrating devices for the display of altitude and heading. It seems that
Johnson’s invention achieved its objectives but was not developed further
as his flight ‘was too preoccupied with real flying to develop it further’. If he
had done so, it is likely that a useful simulator would have resulted.
Another early British instrument flight trainer is that described by

Fig. 2.5. Roeder’s aeroplane model.

R.PM Airspeed Longitudinal Transverse Slip


Indicator Indicator Pendulum Pendulum Indicator
Vi

Transverse
Velocity

Absokte Relate
rate of Roll
Climb Angle
w tf

@ Engine
and
22 A short history of the flight simulator

Jenkins and Berlyn of Air Service Training Limited, Hamble, in their patent
applications of 1932 (Jenkins & Berlyn 1932). This ground-fixed apparatus
used mechanisms similar to Johnson’s for linking the instruments to the
controls. Simple mechanical means were used to produce the required
dynamic behaviour of the instruments in response to control inputs, but on
a case by case basis rather than as an outcome ofa unifying dynamic model.
The first simulator described in which the design followed the
systematic approach outlined at the start of this section must be that of
Roeder (Roeder 1929). On every re-reading, one comes away with the
impression that he has said it all! Roeder’s patent describes in detail a
simulator for the height control system of an airship. The computer is part
hydraulic and part mechanical, with cams for generating non-linear
functions. The diagram (Fig. 2.5) reproduced in translation from the patent,
shows the interaction of forces in an aeroplane together with the inputs
(controls) and outputs (instruments), From a scheme such as this Roeder
produced his simulation. In addition, he discusses the problems of setting
initial conditions, introducing disturbances, recording performance and
introducing instrument failures. He also gives the opinion that while a
movable cabin would be useful for an airship or submarine simulator, it
would not be so for an aeroplane.

2.4 The simulator takes off


The Link Trainers themselves were soon being fitted with
instruments as standard equipment. Blind flying training was started by the
Links at their flying school in the early 1930s and as the importance ofthis
type of training was fully realised, notably by the US Army Air Corps, when
they were given the task of carrying mail, so the sales of the Link Trainers
increased. The newer Link Trainers were able to rotate through 360 degrees
which allowed a magnetic compass to be installed, while the various
instruments were operated either mechanically or pneumatically.
Altitude, for example, was represented by the pressure of air in a tank
directly connected to an altimeter. Rudder/aileron interaction was pro-
vided in the more advanced trainers, as was a stall feature. The Link was
thus now a simple form of analogue computer of which the actuators
producing the motions were an inseparable part. Reproduction of aircraft
dynamics was still developed in an empirical manner, though.
A further increase in the usefulness of the trainers was achieved with the
attachment of a course plotter to enable the instructor to monitor a
simulated flight by the student. This took the form of a ‘crab’, a self-
propelled and steerable device which crawled over a chart marking the
track with an inked wheel. By relating the position of the student’s aircraft
2.4 The simulator takes off 20

to marks on the chart, the instructor was able manually to control the
transmission of simulated radio beacon signals to the trainer (Fig. 2.6).
The Link achieved increasing success throughout the 1930s. The device
was produced in various versions and was sold to many countries,
including Japan, the USSR, France and Germany. The first Link Trainer to
be sold to an airline was that delivered to American Airlines in 1937. The

Fig. 2.6. Link Trainer showing instructor’s table.


24 A short history of the flight simulator

RAF also took delivery oftheir first Link in that year. By the beginning of
the Second World War, many of the major air forces were doing their basic
instrument training on Links, or derivatives. At the start of the war,
German pilots posted to bomber squadrons had had 50 hours of blind
flying training on Link Trainers (Deighton 1977) (Fig. 2.7).
The need also arose for the training of large numbers of recruits in the
many individual and team skills involved in the operation of the ever
increasing number of military aircraft types. Basic instrument instruction
was performed in part on Link Trainers (Curtis 1978), but aircraft
developments such as variable pitch propellors, retractable undercarriages
and higher speeds made sound training in cockpit drill essential (Air
Member for Training 1945). The mock-up fuselage was one solution — for
example, the Hawarden Trainer, made from the centre section of a Spitfire
fuselage, enabled training in the procedures of acomplete operational flight
(Directorate of Operational Training 1942). The Links, too, were developed
to the stage where the instrument layout and performance of specific
aeroplanes were duplicated. The US Army—Navy Trainer, Model 18 (ANT-
18), for example, was designed for indoctrination in AT-6 and SNJ flying.

Fig. 2.7. Link Trainer with cyclorama.


2.4 The simulator takes off ZS

In 1939 Britain requested Link to design a trainer which could be used to


improve the celestial navigation capabilities of their crews who were
ferrying ‘surplus’ US aircraft across the Atlantic. Also, it was hoped that
such a trainer could be used to improve bombing accuracy during night
raids over Europe (Kelly 1970). Edwin Link, together with the aerial
navigation expert, P. Weems, worked out the design of a massive trainer
suitable for use by an entire bomber crew, the whole to be housed in a 45

Fig. 2.8. The celestial navigation trainer.


26 A short history of the flight simulator

foot high silo-shaped building. This was the Celestial Navigation Trainer
(Fig. 2.8).
The trainer incorporated a larger version of the conventional Link
Trainer fuselage which could accommodate the pilot, navigator, and
bomber. The pilot flew the trainer, which included all of the normal Link
facilities and instruments, while a bomb aimer’s station provided the
appropriate sight and an image of targets over which the trainer flew. The
navigator was provided with radio aids and, in addition, a very elaborate
celestial view from which he could take his astro sights. The ‘stars’, twelve of
which were collimated, were fixed to a dome which was given a movement
to correspond with the apparent motion of the stars with time and changes
in bomber longitude and lattitude. The first Celestial Navigation Trainer
was completed in 1941, and the RAF placed an order for sixty. However,
only a limited number were installed. Hundreds of them were installed and
operated in the United States (Maisel 1944).
Throughout the war, many instructors on RAF stations contributed
their ideas with the construction of improvised devices — this due to the long
delivery times and low priority given to the manufacture oftraining aids. An
early development was the ‘instructional fuselage’, consisting of a fuselage
of the required type mounted on stands and housed in a hangar. ‘It could be
used to train air crews in all the drills they have to carry out in the particular
aircraft that they are being trained on. All the services, hydraulic, electrical,

Fig. 2.9. A Silloth Trainer for a Halifax aircraft. (Courtesy Controller HMSO.)
2.5 The electronic simulator oT,

and pneumatic, and their recording instruments are made to work in the
normal manner, so that the various drills carried out by the crew are
realistic. Bomb-dropping procedure and abandon aircraft drills by para-
chute and dinghy are also carried out; the bombs are released into sand
trays beneath the aircraft.’ (Directorate of Operational Training 1942.)
Other reports exist of trainers made from fuselage sections mounted on
crude motion systems.
One such trainer which achieved wider success in the RAF was the
‘Silloth Trainer’, developed by Gordon Iles at RAF Silloth, a Coastal
Command station near Blackpool. This trainer was designed for the
training of all members of the crew, and was primarily a type familiarisation
trainer for learning drills and the handling of malfunctions. As well as the
basic flying behaviour, all engine, electrical and hydraulic systems were
simulated, and sounds generated. An instructor’s panel, visible in the
illustration, was provided to enable monitoring of the crew, and fault
insertion (Fig. 2.9)
All computation was pneumatic —a natural choice for the designer,
whose background in the pianola business gave him a lot in common with
Edwin Link. The simulation was developed empirically but when properly
adjusted, gave realistic responses. Silloth Trainers were manufactured for
many types of 2- and 4-engined aircraft throughout the war, but were never
used in large numbers; in mid-1945 only 14 were in existence or on order.
Later in the war improved versions of this type of trainer were designed at
other RAF stations but were never developed since all such work ceased at
the end of the war.
It is interesting to note in passing the contribution of Rediffusion. The
company’s skills in wired radio distribution enabled them to develop
crew trainers for radio navigation. Many of these were manufactured and
used by the RAF (Adorian, Staynes & Bolton 1979). Rediffusion did not get
into the flight simulation business until after the war.

pays) The electronic simulator


The Silloth Trainer demonstrated that the mechanical and
pneumatic techniques had reached the end of their usefulness, at least for
detailed simulation of specific aircraft types. Electrical methods of analogue
computation were known (Soroka 1954) but it required the urgency and
cross-fertilisation of ideas of World War II for the necessary development of
the technique to occur. The analogue computer, or differential analyser as it
was known then, enabled a calculation of the response of the vehicle to
aerodynamic forces as opposed to an empirical duplication of their effects.
In 1936 Mueller, at MIT, described an electronic analogue computer for
28 A short history of the flight simulator

the faster than real-time simulation of aeroplane longitudinal dynamics


(Mueller 1936). His interest was in aircraft design and the solution of the
equations of motion, but as a postscript to his paper he mentioned the
possibility of extending the timescale of the simulation and of including a
man in the loop.
Two of the first flight trainers which used an electrical form of com-
putation were Dehmel’s machine and Travis’ ‘Aerostructor’. Richard
Dehmel, an engineer with Bell Telephone, become interested in the
problems of flight training in 1938. His first development was an automatic
signal controller for generating synthetic radio signals with a Link Trainer,
thereby eliminating the need for an attendant to manually adjust the
volume controls. Following this, Dehmel developed the ‘flight’ portion of a
trainer based on electrical circuits (Dehmel 1941). This machine was never
manufactured, but served as a starting point for future developments by the
inventor.
The Aerostructor, developed by A.E. Travis and his colleagues in 1939—
40, also in the USA, was a fixed base, electrically operated trainer with a
visual rather than an instrument presentation. The visual system was based
ona film loop and simulated the effects of heading, pitch and roll movement
(Flight Training Research Association 1940). The trainer was widely
exhibited, but was never commercially produced. It was however used in
large numbers by the US Navy in a modified form as the ‘Gunairstructor’,
In 1941 an electronic simulator which solved aircraft equations of motion
was designed at the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) in
Britain, famous for its radar work. This simulator was designed to provide
the ‘flying unit’ for the TRE aerial interception (AI) radar trainers
(Dummer 1985). The computer was based on the ideas of F. C. Williams
(later to become one of the digital computer pioneers), and used the
Velodyne (Williams & Uttley 1946), another TRE invention, for in-
tegration. The dc method of computing was used in the simulation of the
simplified aerodynamics of a fighter. Many ofthese flying units were used in
TRE trainers during the war (Fig. 2.10). Later, in 1945, a more advanced
unit including feel forces was designed by A. M. Uttley for use in a new AI
visual crew trainer. This, however, never went into service.
In addition to using advanced electronic computational methods, the
TRE AI trainers were further examples of full crew trainers. The four stages
of AI combat could be practised : following an interception course provided
by a ground operator, the ‘chase’ guided by on-board radar, the visual
contact, and the moment of firing. The TRE Type 19 provided training in
the complete sequence by including positions for the pilot and AI operator,
an instructor’s unit, computers for simulation of the attacking aircraft and
2.5 The electronic simulator 29

the relative position of the ‘enemy’, a visual projection unit and a course
recorder. Some of these trainers were built as mobile units whose function
was to tour Operational squadrons to train in the use ofthe latest versions of
airborne radar.
In 1941 Commander Luis de Florez, of the US Navy, visited Britain and
wrote his ‘Report on British Synthetic Training’. This report was influential
and helped to bring about the establishment of the Special Devices Division
of the Bureau of Aeronautics, the forerunner of the present Naval Training
Systems Center (Murray 1971). Also in that year, a copy of the Silloth
Trainer was constructed in the USA for evaluation at the Mohler Organ
plant. As a result, it was decided to build an electrical version, as instability
of adjustment due to humidity, temperature and ageing made the system
unmanageable. The task of designing this was given to the Bell Telephone
Laboratories who produced an operational flight trainer for the Navy’s
PBM-3 aircraft. This device, completed in 1943, consisted of aPBM front-
fuselage and cockpit, with complete controls, instrumentation and auxi-
liary equipment, together with an electronic computing device to solve the
flight equations (Huff 1980). Non-linear functions were generated by
contoured potentiometers driven by the integrator servos. The simulator
had no motion or visual systems or variable control loading. A total of 32 of
these simulators for seven types of aeroplane were built by Belland Western

Fig. 2.10. A TRE flying unit. (Courtesy Controller HMSO.)


30 A short history of the flight simulator

Electric during the war years (De Florez 1949). It has been stated that the
PBM-3 was ‘probably the first operational flight trainer that attempted to
simulate the aerodynamic characteristics of a specific aircraft’ (Dreves,
Pomeroy & Voss 1971), but this is a questionable claim.
Dehmel continued to develop his ideas independently of Bell and
managed to interest the Curtiss—Wright corporation in the manufacture of
his devices in 1943. After the development of a prototype trainer, the US Air
Force ordered two trainers from Curtiss—Wright for the AT-6 aeroplane.
Production of these followed. (Fig. 2.11).
After the war, competition from Curtiss-Wright stimulated the Link
Company to develop their own electronic simulators. Also at this time the
value of the Link Trainer motion system was being called into question
(Kelly 1970). The movements of this trainer did not correctly simulate the
forces experienced in flight, and in fact a ground-fixed trainer would
accurately locate the force vector in more cases. Also, the axis of roll
rotation was too far below the pilot to allow correct simulation of
accelerations due to roll. It was argued that the modern pilot should not fly
‘by the seat of his pants’, but by instruments. Ed Link disagreed with this,
holding the view that trainer motion was needed even if incorrect, since
motion was present in flying. Despite this, Link followed the trend to fixed
base simulators. The company therefore developed their own electronic
analogue computer which was used in the C-11 jet trainer (Fig. 2.12). A

Fig. 2.11. A Curtiss-Wright Z-1 without cover. (Courtesy R. C. Dehmel.)


2.5 The electronic simulator Bil

contract was awarded by the US Air Force in 1949, and eventually over a
thousand of these types were sold.
Meanwhile, Curtiss-Wright had contracted to develop a full simulator for
the Boeing 377 Stratocruisers of Pan American Airways. The simulator was
installed in 1948 and was the first full aircraft simulator to be owned by an
airline. No motion or visual systems were installed, but in all other respects
the simulator duplicated the appearance and behaviour ofthe Stratocruiser
cockpit. The trainer was found especially useful for the practice of
procedures involving the whole crew; emergency conditions could readily
be introduced by the instructor on his comprehensive fault insertion panel.
Complete routes could be flown, as in real life, using the same navigational
aids. This facility was used by other airlines, and impressed users by the
degree of procedural realism achieved (Brice 1951). The lack of motion,
though, did give rise to reservations due to the unnatural feel of the
aeroplane, even giving rise to controlling problems.
In Britain, a similar simulator was built for BOAC by Rediffusion under
license to Curtiss-Wright. Rediffusion later built a simulator for the Comet
I for the same airline.
The first Curtiss-Wright, Rediffusion and Link simulators used the ac
carrier method of analogue computing. Air Trainers Ltd (the successor

Fig. 2.12. A Link C-11.


32 A short history of the flight simulator

company to the first importers of Link Trainers to Britain, and later to be


merged with Rediffusion) however, decided to use the de method, a more
demanding but potentially more precise technique. Their first simulator
using this method was built for the RAF’s Meteor aeroplane. Further
developments in ac simulation were made, and of course the electronics
technology moved from valves to transistors, enabling smaller and cooler
running analogue computers. :

2.6 The modern simulator takes form


In the early 1950s aircraft manufacturers did not have a great
deal of analytical information on the performance of their airframes and
engines — the gaps had to be filled by the simulator manufacturers by trial
and error and pilot evaluation. This situation changed, though, with more
and more data becoming available from flight testing programmes.
Together with requirements for driving the motion and visual systems then
being introduced and pressure from the operators for improved accuracy
(and, they hoped, better transfer of training) significant increases in the
amount of analogue computer hardware became necessary. The law of
diminishing returns started to operate and the cumulative errors of all of
this interacting circuitry exceeded the improved accuracy implied by the
data available. Another result observed was a decrease in reliability despite
improved component technology. The effect of the latter was multiplied by
the increasing utilisation being made of simulators.
This period coincided with the introduction of the second generation of
digital computers. These machines had the potential for solving the
accuracy and reliability problems, and at a cost which was now low enough
to be practical for most applications. As a consequence, there was an almost
complete shift to digital simulators, with analogue computers only being
retained for the simplest trainers and those parts ofasimulation where high
enough performance could not be achieved digitally at reasonable cost.
The idea of using numerical techniques in control systems was suggested
as early as 1942, the year in which P. Crawford submitted his masters
thesis ‘Automatic Control by Arithmetical Operations’, to MIT (Redmond
& Smith 1980). Crawford’s later influence contributed to the definition of
the first digital flight simulator project, again started at MIT. This project
had its origins in the US Navy’s desire for a universal flight simulation
machine which could be used for both aircraft development and training. A
research contract was awarded to the Servomechanisms Laboratory at
MIT in 1943 to develop ASCA (Airplane Stability and Control Analyser).
This project was started on conventional analogue computer lines, but
due to the influence of Crawford’s work and the other digital computer
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"All right. I swear. What's the secret?"
"Not that kind of swear. Cuss. Rip it out. Blast the ceiling off the roof.
Let yourself go."
He peered into her face. It was solemn, intent. "I don't know what
——" he began. Then he broke off and let himself go. Such virulent,
vitriolic, blazing, throbbing profanity Pat had never dreamt of. It
comprehended the known universe and covered the history of the
cosmos, past, present, and future. When he had finished and lay
back exhausted, she enquired:
"Feel better, don't you?"
"Yes. How did you know?"
"I saw you a few minutes ago when your eyes were holding in. But
you couldn't help—there was——" She touched her own eyelids.
"You're a —— liar, Pat!" exploded the correct and punctilious T.
Jameson James.
"That's right. Go to it if you haven't got it all out," approved Pat.
"No; I'm through. Lord, that did me good!"
"Cussing to yourself is no good. You've got to have somebody to
listen. Ever let anyone hear you really loosen up before?"
"No. I've always been too—too"—he grinned—"hellish dignified."
"Well, you send for me when you need an audience."
From that time a bond of special sympathy and fellowship was
established between the life so disastrously wrecked and the life so
triumphantly burgeoning. Every morning after breakfast Pat called
him on the phone and every noon she came over for an hour's chat,
until Dee, grateful beyond her self-contained power to express,
threatened to sue her sister for alienation of her husband's
affections.
Nothing, of however much appeal to Pat, was permitted to interfere
with this regimen. Through this it was that she had her quarrel with
Monty Standish.
After three years of hard-working athletic obscurity, Standish had
suddenly blossomed out into flaming football prominence. His picture
appeared in the sporting pages of the metropolitan dailies; his
condition was the subject of commentary in the papers, as serious
as that accorded to an ailing king. He was of a gallant and alluring
type, a bonny lad, handsome, spirited, good-humoured, well-
mannered, sluggish of mind as he was alert of body, but with a
magnetism almost as imperative as Pat's own. He had quite withheld
his homage from her, ostentatiously refusing to compete in the circle
of her adorers, so she was the more surprised and gratified when he
asked her to join his sister's party for the big game. It cost her a real
pang to decline, but when he hotly resented her refusal and
demanded an explanation—he was rather spoiled by all the local
adulation and newspaper notoriety which were the guerdon of his
prowess—Pat declined to be catechised. There was a scene, angry
on his part, scornful on hers, and he departed, darkly indicating that
if Princeton lost the game on his side of the line the true
responsibility for the catastrophe would rest upon her contemptuous
shoulders.
How T. Jameson James got wind of the controversy she never knew,
but on the day of the game he called her to account.
"Why didn't you go down to Princeton?"
"Didn't want to," she said airily.
"Monty Standish asked you, didn't he?"
"He said something about it."
"They say he's the greatest end we've had for ten years." James was
a Princeton alumnus. "He's a good-looking youngster, Pat."
The girl flushed and her eyes shone. "He's a winner to look at," she
agreed.
"They tell me you've added him to your collection."
"That's all guff," replied the inelegant Pat.
"Is it? The point is that you wouldn't go because you felt you had to
come here. Isn't that so?"
"I didn't want to go, anyway," lied Pat gallantly. "I'm worn with
football twice a week."
"Well, you've got to stop spoiling me by coming here every day. It's
bad for me; the doctor says so. I won't have it."
"Are you going to close the house to me?" retorted Pat saucily.
"You'll have to hire a guard. Go on, swear, Jimmie."
"Oh, you go to the devil!" said the invalid, laughing. "If Princeton
loses to-day——"
But Princeton won and Pat was saved from the undying remorse
which should (but probably would not) have consumed her spirit had
Standish "fallen down" and involved his team in defeat.
He came back the following week-end, a hero of the first calibre,
and undertook to ignore Pat at the Saturday dance at which he was
unofficial guest of honour. It would have been a more successful
attempt if his eyes had not constantly strayed from whatever partner
he was with, to follow Pat's pliant and swaying form in the arms of
some happier man. On the morrow his stern resolution, already
weakened, was totally melted by a talk which he had with T.
Jameson James, who had sent for him ostensibly to ask about the
game.
For a front-page newspaper hero he was amazingly humble when he
called up Pat to ask if he might come and see her. Pat, her heart
swelling with pride and not without a flutter of other emotions, said
that he might if he would apologise properly. Mr. Standish did
apologise properly and handsomely, and, by the time the apology
was concluded, Pat was mildly astonished at finding herself in his
arms being fervently kissed and returning the kisses with no less
fervour. She was further surprised to find, when he bade her good-
night, that she was engaged to him.
But the really astounding feature of the whole matter came when
she awoke the next morning to a sense of the prevailing luminosity
of the world and the conviction that she was thrillingly in love. She
had thought that she was through with all that. For a long time,
anyway.
CHAPTER XXXII
They had been engaged for four months. On the whole Pat found
the status highly satisfactory. Everyone heartily approved the match.
Because of Monty's college duties, which pressed sorely upon him as
he was having constant difficulty in keeping up, they saw little of
each other, a fortunate circumstance, as the glamour of her lover's
physical beauty and personal charm persisted in her mind when they
were separated, creating a romantic figure, to which no special
mental attributes were essential. Had they been thrown more
constantly together she might have been disillusioned by the torpid
and unimaginative quality of his mind. But in their brief association
over week-ends they were surrounded by others, and when they
were alone his ardent love-making eked out the scantness of his
conversational resources. If, sometimes, Cary Scott's words,
"companionship, the rarest thing in life or love," recurred to her,
arousing unwelcome questions, she put them away. Scott's image
had dimmed again, in the hot radiance of this new attraction; she
determinedly kept it far in the background. But there was one
unrelenting memory which refused to be permanently immured in
the past.
When the time for the wedding was set, mid-June immediately after
Monty's graduation (if he succeeded in graduating), she realised that
she must face that memory and dispose of it, for her own peace of
mind. Her uneasy thoughts turned to Dr. Bobs. Perhaps he could lay
the ghost.
"Bobs, what do you really think of Monty?" She had gone to his
office, nerved up to the interview.
Osterhout considered. "He means well," was his judicial
pronunciamento.
"What a rotten thing to say about a girl's best young man! What's
the matter with him?"
"Stupid."
"Then you didn't really mean your congratulations."
"Certainly. It's an excellent engagement."
"Am I stupid, Bobs?" she pouted.
"No. But I think you'll be perfectly satisfied with a stupid husband."
"I don't know what makes you so revolting to-day!" complained Pat.
"I'd be bored to death with a boob around the house, and you know
it. He's not stupid."
"If you're satisfied, I am," said the amiable Bobs. "I don't have to
live with him. He's a prize beauty all right. And rich!"
"There you go again. I don't care. (Defiantly) I love Monty, and
that's enough. Anyway I didn't come here to talk about him exactly.
It's something else. Bobs, do many girls confess to their doctors?"
Osterhout looked up sharply and frowned. Almost word for word
Mona had put that same query to him years before. But Pat's face
was more child-like, graver, than that of the lovely, laughing, reckless
Mona had been.
"Probably more than to their priests," he made reply. "That's what a
doctor is for."
"Yes!" she cried eagerly. "Please be just the Fentriss family physician
for a few minutes. Make it easy for me, Bobs dear."
Indefinably his manner changed with his next words, became quietly
attentive, soothing, almost impersonal as he said: "Take your time,
Pat. And when you're ready, tell me as much or as little as you
wish."
"It isn't too easy—even to you. Can't you guess?"
"Ah," said he, after a pause of scrutiny. "So that's it."
"Don't look at me." She put her hands up as if to shield her face
from flame. "Just tell me what to do."
"Are you in trouble?"
"Of course," said she impatiently. "Do you think I'd come bothering
you—— Oh, no! Not that way. Though it might have happened. Now
you do know."
"Go on, Pat."
"Aren't you shocked?" Her eyes darted up at him, at once
supplicating and defiant, from out the tangle of her vagrant hair.
"Not a bit. We doctors don't judge. We help."
"Oh, Bobs! You are divine. I want to know—it's awfully hard to put it
—to know whether—if he'll know—when we're married."
"He?" Osterhout groped in a murk of bewilderment. "Who?"
"Monty, of course. Don't be dumb."
"Monty? Isn't Monty the man?"
"Oh, no!"
For the moment Osterhout was startled clean out of his professional
attitude. "Who is?" he said sternly.
Instantly Pat was mutinous. "I won't tell you."
"I'm sorry I asked it. It's none of your doctor's affair who he is. You
want me to tell you whether your husband, when you marry, will
know that you have had experience before."
"Yes," answered Pat under her breath.
"I'll answer you as I always answer that question."
"Always! Have you had it asked you before?"
A slight, melancholy, tolerant smile lifted the corners of the strong
mouth. "My dear, every doctor who has had among his patients
specimens of the modern, high-strung girl has had that problem put
up to him. The answer is simple; no, he won't know—unless you tell
him."
She drew a soft breath of relief, but almost at once her face
darkened, as the import of his last words made its way to her quick
sensitiveness. "Do you want me to tell him?"
"That is not a question for a physician to answer."
Pat stamped her foot. "Stop being one, then. Be Bobs again. Shall I
tell him, Bobs?"
"Has he ever told you anything of that nature?"
"No. Perhaps there isn't anything to tell. Though I don't suppose he's
exactly one of them dam' virgins. What do you know about him?"
Osterhout gave himself full time to debate the answer within himself
before responding. "There was a raid last year on a notorious
roadhouse near here. Several of our best youth—if you reckon them
by family—were caught. Montgomery Standish was one of them."
"Ugh!" shuddered Pat. "A vile joint like that! Why didn't you tell me
before, Bobs?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "You'd have to go pretty wide of your
own set to find a boy with a clean record. Monty is no worse than
the rest."
"What beasts men are!"
"He might say, if he knew anything: 'What crooks girls are!'"
"You don't mean that it's the same thing," said Pat beneath her
breath. "He goes to a rotten place, probably drunk——"
"Undoubtedly."
"And—and—— Oh, it makes me sick to think of it! It isn't the same. I
may have been a silly little fool, but—oh, Bobs! Can't you
understand?"
"Who was the man, Bambina?"
At the old term of affection her face softened. "Can't you guess,
Bobs, dear?" she whispered.
A blinding, burning illumination lighted up his memory of a hundred
small, vitally significant facts, against which the sudden certainty
stood forth, black and stark.
"Cary Scott, by God!"
Pat's face was set. Her eyes, sombre but fearless, answered him.
"The damned scoundrel!"
"He isn't."
"Isn't? A man of his age to come into a house as a friend and seduce
an innocent child!"
"He didn't seduce me any more than I seduced him."
"Don't talk infernal nonsense."
"It's true; it's true, and you've got to believe it. It was as much my
fault as his."
"Was it your fault that he left you, like a coward?"
"He didn't. I sent him away. He wanted to get free and marry me,
and he would have done it if I'd let him. He was terribly in love with
me, Bobs. Monty doesn't love me that way. Nobody ever will again."
"Well, why wouldn't you marry him?" queried the amazed physician.
"Oh, I don't know." She gave her shoulders the childish petulant
wriggle of old, again the petite gamine of Scott's patient love. "He's
so old."
"Then why in the name——"
"You're full of whys, Bobs. It happened; that's all. Nobody ever
knows why nor how in these things, do they? I—I just lost my
footing and drew him with me, if you want the truth of it."
"I'm beginning to believe you. But I still think he's——"
She flattened a hand gently across his lips. "No, you don't. He's the
best man I've ever known. Except, perhaps, you, Bobs. If you were
in Monty's place and I came to you and told the whole thing you'd
marry me anyway, wouldn't you?"
"Yes, of course."
"But you don't think Monty would?"
"I didn't say so. He's very young and—and unformed."
Pat fell into a reverie. "It was really my mind that Cary seduced. He
drew my mind into his and—and sort of absorbed it, so that I
couldn't get any satisfaction out of other associations. You wouldn't
call him a damned scoundrel for that——"
"I'm not so sure I wouldn't."
"—but it's the thing he's most to blame for. It's worse than the other.
It goes deeper."
"You're getting profound, Pat, as well as clever." In spite of his
perturbation, the doctor smiled. "Though you're talking casuistry."
"I don't know what that is. I'm talking sense. I've almost forgotten
that Cary and I were lovers. But there's something way down deep
in my mind that he'll never lose his hold on."
"You're in love with him yet, then!"
"I'm not!" she denied vehemently. "I'm in love with Monty. Violently."
"I wish he were ten years older. Or a thousand or so wiser. Then I'd
say, 'Tell him the whole thing.' As it is, no. He's marrying your future,
not your past. If you're going to play straight with him——"
"Absolutely!" she averred. "I won't look at another man after we're
married."
"What about that restlessness of the mind, though?"
"All done with. What's the good? You have more fun if you're
stupid.... You were always wanting me to marry somebody old
enough to be my grandfather, Bobs, but——"
"Ah, yes," he cut in grimly. "Now you're going to answer me some
questions. How came you to know that, about my wanting you to
marry a man over thirty?"
"If I tell you, you'll be paralysed."
"Go ahead. Paralyse me."
"I read it in your letters."
"What letters?" he asked, stupefied.
"The ones to Mother. Oh, Bobs, I think they were too flawless. No
one but a darling like you could have written them."
"Wait a moment." He put his hand to his head. His science-
circumscribed world of materialism was toppling about him. "How
did you know about them? That I was writing them? Where to find
them?"
"Mother told me."
"Mona? Pat, I want the truth."
"I'm giving it to you. Before she died, when I saw her there in New
York, she told me how she had made you promise to write and put
the letters in the safe; and the real reason was, not that she thought
she would ever come back to read them, but she thought you were
the wisest and best man in the world, and she knew how fond you
were of all of us, and she wanted me to know what you thought and
be guided by what you said. I suppose she figured that you'd say
more about me that way than you ever would to me. So you did."
Osterhout gave a great laugh, partly of relief, partly of tenderness.
"That's so like Mona! Her passion for intrigue, just for the sake of
the game itself; her eternal loving cleverness. There are mighty few
people, Pat, in whom affection is a thing of the mind as well as the
heart. Your mother was one of them."
"So'm I," asserted Pat promptly. "What's the matter now, Bobs?" For
his face had altered again, his brow drawing heavily down, his eyes
become still and brooding.
"It won't do, Pat. You're not telling me the truth. Not the whole
truth. After your mother died, I changed the combination of the
safe."
The girl's laugh had a queer, strained quality. "I know you did. What
of it?"
"How could you get the letters to read?"
"I couldn't, at first."
"But you claim that you did. How?"
"Well—it was a dream. At least, it must have been a dream. Or else
—I don't know. Mother came back one night and took me by the
hand and led me into her room to the safe, and when I woke up the
door was open and the numbers of the combination were in my
brain as clearly as if someone had just spoken them in my ear."
"Were you frightened, Pat?"
"Not a bit. Isn't it strange? After that I could open it myself, any
time."
"Pat, do you really think," he began hoarsely, and stopped.
"Do I think it was her spirit? I don't know. It was something."
"It was something," he repeated. "Something from the other side. A
lifting of the curtain. For you; not for me. Well," he sighed, "no more
letters."
"Why not?"
"Why should there be? Whatever I've got to say to you I can say
direct, now that the secret is out. It was really to you that I was
writing all the time, so it appears."
"It wasn't. It was to her. How do you know she doesn't know;
doesn't read them—and love them? You must keep them up, Bobs."
He shook his head. But his veiled glance roved to the mahogany
desk in the corner. Instantly Pat interpreted it:
"There's one there. An unfinished one. Let me read it."
"As you like. It's only just begun. About your engagement. It doesn't
matter anyway now. A lost illusion."
From a locked secret drawer he took the letter, only a single sheet.
An inspiration came to Pat. "I'm going to add a P. S. May I?"
"Yes."
Seating herself she ran through the few brief words, then wrote
busily. Having finished she leaned back in her chair to consider her
companion.
"Bobs," she announced with deliberation: "I think I'll let you read
what I've written. Shall I?"
He held out his hand. She put the missive into it. He read:

"Dearest: Bobs thinks he is still in love with you. He means to


be faithful, poor old boy. But he really loves Dee. She knows it,
way inside her; the way women know. And she is coming to
care for him, too. That is why she is so shy and stand-offish
with him; not a bit like Con and me. But he hasn't the sense to
see it. It's time he knew it; that both of them knew it. Poor,
brave old Jimmie-jams is going to pass out one of these days,
and be rid of all his pains. He knows it; he told me last week—
we're the greatest pals ever—that he wouldn't last a year. There
was someone else that Dee was crazy about; but she's given
that up. It's over. So when Jimmie-jams passes along it's up to
Bobs, if he's a man and not an old fossil, to step forward. Dee's
been a widow long enough. That is what you would want for
them both, isn't it, dear? I know it is."

Osterhout walked over to the window. His face was white, his bulky
frame trembling. The betraying sheet of paper fluttered away from
his fingers. Suddenly warm arms were about his neck; soft lips were
pressed to his cheek; a breath that wavered against his ear like a
fragrant breeze of spring formed the words, gaily spoken:
"Oh, Bobs! Who cares a darn for a lost illusion when the reality is so
much sweeter!"
CHAPTER XXXIII
From the time when Dr. Osterhout assured her of her secret's safety,
Pat knew that she must tell her fiancé, before the wedding. Some
quirk of feminine psychology would have justified her in
concealment, so long as there was risk. The chances of the game!
But to go forward upon the path of marriage in perfect safety and
with an unsuspecting mate—that was, in her mind, mean. Curiosity,
too, that restless, morbid craving to know what exciting thing would
result, pressed her. The daring experimentalist was rampant within
her. How would Monty take it? What would he do?
... How should she tell him?...
Opportunity paved the way. A group of her set were at Holiday Knoll
on a Saturday evening, discussing the local sensation of the day.
Generously measured highballs had been distributed, and in the dim
conservatory, lighted only by the glow of cigarettes, they discussed
the event. A betrothed girl of another suburb had committed suicide
after the breaking of her engagement and gossip ascribed the
tragedy to the inopportune discovery of an old love affair. With the
freedom of the modern flapper, Margaret Thorne, half lying in the
arms of Nick Torrance on the settee, declared the position:
"It was the Teddy Barnaby business. Two years ago we all thought
they were engaged."
"Weren't they?" asked someone.
"More or less," asseverated the sprightly Miss Thorne. "Chiefly more,
from all accounts. Then Johnny Dupuy came here to live, and she
shifted her young affections to him and caught him."
"Do you think he found out about Teddy?"
"Sure—like—a—Bible."
"How?"
"Why pick on me for a hard one like that?"
"Perhaps she told him," suggested one of the other girls.
"She wouldn't be such a boob; no girl would," offered a languid
girlish voice.
"It'd be the square thing to do." This was a masculine opinion, and
jejune, even for that crowd.
"Don't know—yah!" declared Miss Thorne, meaning to express her
contempt for this view. "It was up to Dupuy to look in the mare's
mouth before he bought."
The discussion played about the subject with daring sallies and
prurient relish, the final conclusion of the majority being that the
fiancé had "got wise" and the girl had killed herself because he
broke the engagement, "as any fellow would" (Monty Standish's
contribution, this last).
"What if she did go to him and own up?" suggested Selden Thorpe.
"It'd be just the same," opined Standish. "He'd have to quit."
"Oh, I don't know. It doesn't follow."
"Wouldn't you?"
"I don't know that I would. It depends."
"You'd be a pretty poor sort of fish if you wouldn't."
"Maybe, if I thought as you do. But we don't all think the same."
"Some of us don't think at all," put in Pat acidly. "We just talk."
"Meaning which, Treechy?" inquired Torrance.
"Oh, nothing!"
"I know John Dupuy," proceeded Thorpe. "He isn't just exactly the
one to draw lines too strictly."
"I grant you that Johnnie would never win the diamond-set chastity
belt of the world's championship," said the daring Miss Thorne, and
elicited a chorus of appreciative mirth.
Pat did not join in it. She was thinking fast and hard.
After the rest had gone Monty stayed on, as of right. Something in
Pat's expression struck even his torpid perceptions, as he put his
arm around her and drew her to him for the customary "petting
party."
"What's all the gloom about, sweetie?"
She released herself not over-gently. "Monty, would you have done
what Dupuy did?"
"How do you mean?"
"Broken off your engagement—on that account?"
"Why, yes. Any fellow would." A convincing reason, for him.
"Selden Thorpe wouldn't."
"I'll bet he would. He's a bluff. He makes me sick."
"Well—then—you'd better break ours."
"I don't get you, Pat."
"It's been the same with me as with Elsie Dowden. I've been
meaning to tell you."
"I don't believe it," he said violently. "It's a try-on. A trick."
"It's true. You've got to believe it."
"Who's the man?" bayed Monty like a huge dog.
"I'll never tell you."
He gathered his powerful frame together as if to spring upon her. If
he did, if he beat her to the ground, choked her into helplessness,
Pat thought, she would hate him and love him for it. But his rage
ebbed, impotent of its culmination, a little pitiful, a little ridiculous.
"Wh-wh-what did you do it for?" It was almost a whimper.
"I don't know. I didn't mean to—at the beginning."
"Did you love him?"
"Yes. I thought I did."
"You love him now," he charged, his fury mounting again.
"I don't! I love you."
"This is a hell of a thing to tell a man you say you love," he faltered
plaintively.
"You'd rather I hadn't told you. I'm not built that way! I had to tell."
Instantly he was suspicious. "Had to? Why did you have to?"
"Not for any reason that you'd understand." The slight emphasis on
the "you" was the first touch of bitterness she had allowed herself.
"Wouldn't he marry you?"
"I wouldn't marry him."
Monty perceptibly brightened. Pat's womanly intuitions,
supersensitised by the strain of the contest, told her why. If, to his
male standards, she was a maiden despoiled, she was at least not a
woman scorned; her rating had gone up sensibly.
"Where is he now?"
"I don't know. I haven't seen him for a long time. I'll never see him
again."
"Pat," with an air of resolute magnanimity—"if you'll tell me who it
was I'll marry you anyway."
At that her pale cheeks flamed. "I'm not begging you to marry me,
Monty. I'm not that cheap in the market."
"You want our engagement broken?"
"That's up to you. Absolutely. If you think, now I've told you, that
you're so much better and purer than I am because I've done what I
did——"
"What d'you mean, better and purer?"
"I suppose you've never had any affair with any girl——"
"Are you trying to pretend to believe that's the same thing?" His
voice was incredulous, contemptuous.
"Why isn't it the same thing?"
Young Mr. Standish suffered a paralysis of scandalised amazement.
"Because it isn't! For God's sake! You talk like one of those radical
freaks that spout on soapboxes."
"I'm not so sure they aren't right about this man-and-woman thing,"
declared Pat recklessly. In so speaking she felt that she had broken
with conventionalities far more than in anything, however bold,
previously enunciated in their talk.
Monty's square jaw became ugly. "I'm giving you your chance. You
won't tell me the man's name?"
Pat preserved the silence of obstinacy. It was more convincing than
any negative. Also more exasperating.
"Good-night!" bellowed her lover, and strode from the room.
Almost immediately he was back, endued with a sad and noble
expression. "Nobody shall ever know about this from me, Pat. You're
safe."
For three nights Pat washed her troubled soul with tears. Her family
knew that there had been a lovers' quarrel; that was all. Pat waited
for Monty to break the engagement formally or send her word that
he wished her to break it. Through all her grief of bereavement
which, she repeatedly told herself, was the most sorrowful depth
that her life had yet touched, that any life could touch, she
impatiently awaited the definite solution. Relief from the strain of
uncertainty; that was what she craved.
On the fourth evening Monty reappeared. All his nobleness was
gone. He was haggard, nerve-racked, forlorn. He threw himself upon
her compassion. He implored her. He would forgive everything; he
would forget everything; he would make no conditions, if only she
would take him back. Life without her——
"All right, Monty-boy," said Pat, really affected by his suffering. "I
haven't changed. I love you, Monty. But if ever you let what I've told
you make any difference, if ever you speak of it or let me know that
you even think of it, I'm through. That minute and forever."
Humbly, abjectly, the upholder of man's superior privilege accepted
the absurd condition. The stronger nature had completely dominated
the weaker.
Back in his arms again, Pat savoured the delicious warmth of a
passion the more ardent for the threat of frustration; the triumph of
a crisis valorously met and successfully passed. But an encroaching
thought tainted the rapture of the moment. What was it that he
himself had so confidently said to Selden Thorpe? Was her splendid
and beautiful young lover, holding the views which he had
proclaimed and surrendering them so readily, indeed "a poor sort of
fish"?
CHAPTER XXXIV
Again Pat was happy in her engagement. She frequently and
insistently assured herself that she was. Certainly she had no just
complaint of Monty. He was all that a lover should be when they
were together; he kept to his pact and never in any manner referred
to Pat's confession. But when he was away she sometimes wished
that he wouldn't write so often, or, at least, expect her to answer so
regularly. His letters added nothing to his charm. They innocently
bristled with I's; but it was the monotony rather than the egotism of
his style that annoyed her. Her answers, at first ardent, vivid and
flashing like herself, soon became mere chronicles of petty events,
interspersed with protestations of love. They were temporarily
genuine enough, these latter, since each time he was with her she
was re-warmed in the glow of their mutual passion.
But she could not stifle all misgivings. Incompetent though she was
to analyse comprehensively her changeful emotions, she
nevertheless had disturbing gleams of self-knowledge which added
nothing to her confidence in a future whereof Monty Standish was to
be a large part. Pat dimly recognised herself for that difficult and
composite type of girlhood which, though imperatively sexed, will
never fulfill itself through physical attraction and physical
satisfactions alone. For such as she there must be the double
response; if the mating be not both mentally and physically
sufficient, ultimate disaster is inevitable.
Brooding upon these self-suspicions she would fall into moods of
silence and withdrawal puzzling to the matter-of-fact lover who
would sometimes grow quite petulant over her perfunctory
responses to his good-humoured ineffectualities of companionship.
Once when he rallied her upon this she burst into angry tears and
snapped out: "I'm so dam' worn with piffle and prattle," and darted
upstairs.
But at their next meeting she was so prettily contrite and yielding
that his vanity was quite soothed.
As the wedding day drew near, Pat dismissed whatever doubts she
may have had, in the excitement of fitting-out. It was on one of
these shopping expeditions, when she had gone into town by train,
her runabout having suffered an attack of nervous breakdown, that,
crossing the station plaza she came face to face with an old but
unforgotten acquaintance. She saw his keen pleasant face light up,
could read in his half-dismayed expression the struggle to remember
exactly who she was, and went to him, holding out her hand:
"You've forgotten me, Mr. Warren Graves."
He took the hand. "Indeed, I haven't! It's Pat. Little Pat."
She nodded. "Better than I gave you credit for."
"I'm awfully sorry, but I have forgotten the rest of it."
"Pat'll do," she laughed.
"No; but let me think back."
"Want any help?"
"It was a party, somewhere about here. A corking party. I'd had one
drink that I remember and some more that I don't. A funny,
delightful kiddie was floating around outside like Cinderella. She
wouldn't go in and dance with me, but—let me think——"
"I wouldn't think too far," urged Pat, her face tinged with pink.
"Ah, but I've got the name now!" he cried, triumphant and tactful at
once. "Fentriss. Miss Patricia Fentriss, alias Pat, alias the Infant, alias
the Demon——"
"What a relieving memory you've got!"
"—who stood at the bend of the stairs and said good-night so
sweetly that I never quite got over it. But, I say; you have grown
up."
He looked at her piquant, provocative, welcoming face and
continued, with a gleam of mischief in his eyes:
"Now that I'm recovering from the shock I seem to recall an older
sister protruding from a door most inopportunely."
"Aren't you afraid you'll miss your train, Mr. Graves?"
"I'm not going to the train."
"You're carrying that satchel for exercise?"
"I'm wishing it onto the parcels stand while I take a delightful young
lady to luncheon."
"Surely you must be keeping her waiting."
"I'm daring to hope she'll come with me while I pry myself from this
baggage. Will you, Pat?"
"Oh; you're asking me to lunch with you?"
"Such is my dark and deadly purpose."
"I ought not to. But I want to."
He laughed delightedly. "You haven't changed a bit inside and most
marvellously outside. Then you'll come?"
"You'd make a fortune as a mind-reader. There's a condition
though."
"Name it; it's agreed to."
"That you'll forget all about that foolishness of ours at the party. I
was only fourteen."
It was his turn to flush. "You make me ashamed of myself," he said
with such charming sincerity that Pat let fall a friendly and forgiving
hand upon his arm for a second. "But let me tell you this. When I
left your house that night I was more than a little in love with you.
Oh, calf-love, doubtless. But—it makes it a little better, doesn't it?"
"Yes," answered Pat gravely. "It makes it a lot better—for both of
us."
"Then we'll forget all of it that you'd wish forgotten," said he.
In her italicised moments Pat would have described the luncheon
that followed as "too enticing." But Pat did not feel stressful in the
company of Warren Graves; she felt quiet and attentive, and
wonderfully receptive to the breath of the greater world which he
brought to her. He had been in the diplomatic service since the war,
in several European capitals, had read and thought and mingled with
men who were making or marring not the politics alone, but the very
geography of the malleable earth. After a little light talk, in which Pat
was conscious that he was trying her out, the rapprochement of
their minds was established and he settled down to talk with her as
if she had been a woman of the international world in which he
moved. Her swift, apprehensive intelligence kept him up to his best
form. As the coffee was finished he said reproachfully:
"You've made me chatter my head off. And I'm supposed to have
rather a gift for silence. How do you work your spells?"
"By being sunk in admiring interest," she answered, smiling up at
him as she put on her gloves. "You've given me the most delightful
hour I've had for years."
"But it needn't end here, need it?" he protested anxiously. "Don't you
want to go to a matinée, or something?"
"There aren't any. It's Friday."
"So it is. But there are always the movies."
Pat knew that she ought not to go; there were a dozen important
errands to be done. But: "Oh, very well," she said. Duties could wait.
Pleasure was something you had to grab before it got away from
you. The philosophy of the flapper.
At the "motion picture palace" they got box seats, the chairs
suggestively close together. She wondered whether he would try to
hold her hand; also whether she would let him if he did. Probably
she would; there was no harm in that, and it gave a pleasant sense
of companionship. Most of the boys with whom she went to the
theatre or movies expected it. Apparently Warren Graves didn't. He
made no move in that direction. Piqued a little, nevertheless Pat
liked him the better for it. Monty might perhaps have objected if he
knew. And, with a start, she discovered that only just then had she
thought of Monty Standish. He had been, for the time, quite
forgotten in the interest of a more enlivening and demanding
association.
What the "serial" of the play was, Pat could hardly have told; "some
hurrah about the West," she informed T. Jameson James afterward.
At the conclusion of it there came a "news feature," showing scenes
about the building where the League of Nations session was being
held. Various noted personages appeared, walked with the knee-
slung, unnatural stalk of the screen across the space, and vanished.
Then it was as if a blinding flash had been projected from the
square. An unforgettable figure stood out amidst the crowd, the face
turned toward her, the eyes, with the faint ironic lift of the brows,
looking down into her soul, arousing a tumult and a throbbing which
left her hardly breath enough to gasp out:
"Cary Scott!"
"Do you know Scott?" asked her escort interestedly.
"Yes. He used to visit in Dorrisdale. Do you?"
"Quite well. Everyone on the inside in Europe knows him; he's one of
the men who are doing big things under the surface at the
conference."
"Tell me," urged Pat as they left the place.
He sketched Scott's career as confidential adviser to several of the
most important of the protagonists in that Titans' struggle. "He's a
sort of liaison officer, knowing France and this country as he does.
He's had a rather rough time of it, lately, poor chap."
"Is he ill?" Pat had a struggle to control her voice.
"No. A domestic smash. His wife—that was—is a demonish sort of
female. However, he's got well rid of her now. To be accurate, he let
her get rid of him. Over-decent of him, all things considered."
"Perhaps she had cause, too." Pat hated herself as she said it. But
she craved to know.
"Nothing of that kind," was the positive reply. "Scott has been living
like an anchorite. They say he was hard hit here in America. As to
that, I don't know. Certainly he has been devoting himself to his
work with no room for any other devotion. Which is more than can
be said of his ex-wife."
"I never met her," Pat heard her voice saying, and quite admired it
for its tone of casual interest. "She didn't come to Dorrisdale."
"Speaking of Dorrisdale, I'm at Washington for a while. Mayn't I run
up to see you?"
"No. I'm afraid not."
"That's a little—disappointing."
"You see, I'm going to be terribly busy until my wedding."
"Wedding? Oh! All my felicitations. I didn't know."
"Yes. I'm to be married to Monty Standish next month."
Even as her lips spoke the words her soul denied them. In the
dominant depths of her, she knew that she could never marry Monty
Standish now. Her thoughts, so lightly detached from her fiancé by
the easy charm of Warren Graves, had been claimed, coerced,
irrevocably absorbed by the swift-passing phantom presentment of
her former lover. The bond created when she had given herself to
him was as nothing compared to this imperative summons across
the spaces.
After a night of passionate struggle, succeeded by resolute thinking,
she wired Monty to come on. When he came, she broke the
engagement. It was ruthless, cruel, unfair. Pat had no excuses, no
extenuations to offer. She simply stood firm. Monty returned to
college, failed of his graduation, and let it be known among his
indignant friends and relatives that Pat had ruined his career. Hot
and righteous though his wrath was, he never so much as hinted at
Pat's secret. Stupid, unstable, self-satisfied, spoiled; the plaster idol
of an athlete-worshipping age; but nevertheless a gentleman within
whom one flame of honour burned clear and constant behind its dull
encasement.
Pat's family variously raged, begged, and protested. Pat let them.
They prophesied social ostracism for her. She shrugged away the
suggestion as improbable in the first place and not worth worrying
about anyway. But she would have gone away had it not been for
her self-assumed responsibility to her broken brother-in-law. And it
was from him that her main support came. From the first he stood
by her unquestioning.
"You're awfully good to me, Jimmie-jams," she said one day as she
was wheeling him in the garden, having dismissed the attendant.
"What did you really think when I told you I wasn't going to marry
Monty?"
A smile of justified cleverness lighted up his pain-worn face. "I'd
never thought that you would."
"Cute little Jimmie! Why not?"
"Too much brains. He'd never keep you interested and you found it
out in time."
"Not too soon," observed the girl with a grimace. "The family are still
raising merry Hades about it."
"Naturally. You don't think you're entitled to any Sunday-school
award for good behaviour on the thing, do you?"
"No. I don't," admitted Pat. But she pouted.
A silence fell between them. It lasted for a full turn around the
garden. Tired of pouting, Pat broke it.
"Want to play bezique, Jimmie?"
"No."
"Want me to read to you?"
"No, dear."
"What the devil do you want? Oh, I'm sorry, Jimmie! I believe I've
got nerves. Never knew there were such things before."
"Pat, stop the chair."
"What's the idea, Jimmie?"
"Come around here where I can see you."
"As per order."
"I know the man."
"What man?"
"The other man."
"I've been acquainted with several of 'em in my life."
"So I've been given to understand. I'm talking about the man on
whose account you broke your engagement."
"You're seeing things, Jimmie. Monty himself is the nigger in that
woodpile."
"What about Cary Scott?"
The look with which she faced him did not waver. "Well, what about
him?"
"He's coming back."
"Coming back? Here?" Still her eyes were steady, but there was the
faintest catch in her breathing.
"Well, no; he isn't. I just said that as an experiment. Though, of
course, he might come if you wanted him. You do want him, don't
you, Pat dear?"
"Sometimes. Other times I don't. How did you know?"
"When you've nothing to do but think," he explained, "you get tired
of thinking about yourself by and by and begin to think about other
people. I've been thinking a lot about you since we got to be pals."
"You're a dear, Jimmie-jams."
"I'm an old crab. But I'm fond of you. And Scott was good to me,
too, when I was first laid up. When you think hard enough about
people you're fond of you begin to see things about them, even
things they may not see, themselves."
"Even things that maybe aren't there at all," she mocked.
"This is there," he asseverated. "There's no use your pretending.
When we talk I'm always catching echoes of Scott's influence in
what you say. You're a different Pat from what you were before you
knew him. I don't think you get on so well with yourself."
"You are clever, Jimmie. I don't. And it makes me furious."
"At him?"
"Yes. I don't know. At myself, too."
"I had a letter from him last week. We've carried on a desultory
correspondence since he left."
Pat's eyes livened. "What does he say about me?"
"How do you know he says anything about you?"
"Don't tease. Tell Pattie."
"You ought to know Scott well enough to realise that he isn't the sort
to display his feelings in a show window. But there are lines that one
could read between. Have you written to him, Pat?"
"No."
"Aren't you going to send for him?"
Her face darkened with troubled memories. "I couldn't. You don't
understand. I couldn't, Jimmie."
"I could write."
"You shan't. You mustn't; if you do I'll hate you. Promise."
"All right. I promise. But don't you really want to see him ever
again?"
"Sometimes I think I'll die if I don't," she said simply. "Other times—
I don't know."
"Why not find out? Won't you let me write?"
"No; no. You've promised."
"Very well. I'll keep to it. Take me inside, slave."
He did not write. He cabled.
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