"All revved up and no place to go," is a common plight at NAS Agana, Guam, these days. WV-2 Flight Simulator has been installed to train pilots of VW-1 and VW-3 in a more thorough manner than actually flying a plane.
The cockpit is an exact duplicate of the Super Constellation. In place of wings and fuselage, there are two trailers filled with resistors, transistors, and relay switches. With the simulator it is possible to induce problems that could not be practiced in a real training mission for fear of crashing the aircaft. Engine failure on take-off, electronic and hydraulic failures, excessive G's on the plane can be introduced at will.
The "flight" is very realistic. On take-off, the four engines can be heard and the vibration felt. The actual screech of the tires on the runway at touchdown is made by sound reproducing equipment.
The set of trailers is one of four. The other three are located at Argentia, Newfoundland; Patxent River, Md., and Barber's Point Hawaii.
RAdm. W. L. Erdmann, Commander, Naval Forces Marianas and Capt. R. H. Wood CO of VW-1, tried the simulator shortly after it was installed. It was a challenging flight with an induced engine failure.
