“For such a state-of-the-art aircraft, the instrumentation was surprisingly old-fashioned, in keeping with Johnson’s preference for tried-and- true systems..”
Amazing statement about Kelly Johnson’s engineering perspective. Practically everything about the airplane was decidedly not old-fashioned. Every innovation had a form-fit-function purpose and where old-fashioned was sufficient, that was used.
Certainly the “drivers” demonstrated courage and competence when operating this amazing aircraft, especially early on. But consider the engineering courage it took, by many people, and the incomparable leadership and vision displayed by Kelly Johnson to guide it through the immense development challenges.