Fascinating read, see ORAC’s post..
ON RAY’S FIRST day of work at Garrett, in Torrance, California, the personnel manager walked him over to a box and took off its lid. Inside was what looked like a big heavy transmission. “It was quite pretty, gears and cams and gold and silver or chrome,” Ray says. He was looking at a mechanical flight computer for an F-4 Phantom. You are the only person in your department to have taken a computer design class, the man said. Your job is to turn this into a 100 percent electronic computer for a new airplane.