In 1976, Bruce Artwick wrote a master's thesis on 3D flight simulation at the University of Illinois. By 1979, his SubLogic Corporation had turned those ideas into Flight Simulator for the Apple II—a wireframe biplane at six frames per second. Microsoft recognized a showcase for the IBM PC and released Microsoft Flight Simulator in 1982. The franchise outlived MS-DOS, survived the death of Aces Game Studio, and re-emerged in 2020 using satellite imagery and Azure AI to model the entire planet. Along the way, FAA Part 60 codified simulator qualification, letting airlines train crews in Level D full-flight simulators that can log zero flight time. From thesis to training device, simulators became the cockpit you can crash without consequences.