What Happened to Evans & Sutherland? Why the Flight Simulator Giant Disappeared

For three decades, Evans & Sutherland drew the view that airline and military pilots flew into inside their simulators, and then it sold that business to a simulator maker. This is the story of how the flight simulator graphics giant from Salt Lake City left the cockpit. Founded in 1968 by University of Utah professors David Evans and Ivan Sutherland, the company built image generators that put runway lights, approach lights and daylight scenes on simulator screens. Its systems sold through a British partner, Rediffusion, to more than one hundred airlines, and its sales peaked near $200 million in 1999. Seven years later, the simulation business went to Rockwell Collins for $71.5 million. You will learn: • How a computer drew a runway at dusk from a few hundred points of light • Why the Rediffusion partnership collapsed after a 1993 takeover • How customer consolidation turned buyers into competitors • Why cheap graphics cards were only part of the story • What the late Harmony system and penalty clauses cost the company If you ever sat in a simulator cab, you probably remember the rows of red, white and blue lights waiting at the end of the approach. Share what you remember in the comments. Subscribe for quiet, careful histories of the machines behind the work. #EvansAndSutherland #FlightSimulator #ImageGenerator #IvanSutherland #FlightSimulation #ComputerGraphicsHistory #PilotTraining #RockwellCollins #TechHistory #DeadTechBrands