centaurus, I'm sure you didn't mean decades of experience designing jet transports. the 737 came around in the 67 , so you are saying that boeing was busy designing jet transports about the time it was building B29s. While it was working on the B47, the 707 came much later.
Douglas had a much nicer autopilot. You want to hold pitch? Select Pitch Hold. Wow. Want to turn? Twist a knob. Want to hold speed? Select Speed or Mach hold. And the comparable douglas flew before the 737.
The CWS is a mystery of a waste. And I've seen new copilots land in CWS NOT KNOWING they were on autopilot. SHEESH!