Flight Sims are not only used for training, but for R&D by the airplane manufacturers. I was lucky enough once to visit Airbus in Toulouse and got to fly the A340 “Iron Bird”. This is a simulator like any other (no motion base) that drives the real aircraft hardware spread out in a huge hanger. When you put the wheels up, you see the wheels going up in the hanger. It all works except the engines – they are simulated and I believe they use electric motors to drive the functions the engines normally supply (beyond thrust obviously).