Brother John, reading up on the Imperial Flying boats and other early long distance flyers has always been amazing stuff. Remembering there was a time when it was Needle, Ball, and Airspeed that was considered State of the art, is just mind boggling.
That spry young fellow that flew a Tiger Moth between the UK and OZ is also a good story.
One of my favorite hunting spots outside La Grande, Oregon still had one of the old Airway Beacons that has replaced the Bonfire that was maintained at that site during the early Air Mail Days.
It does not hurt us to look back to the old days to begin to appreciate how good we have it now. That is a concept that applies to Helicopter flying as well.
Instrument flying on the old LF Airways, stepping on the Ball, using a coffee grinder ADF receiver with a manual Loop, with no directional Gyro and only a Mag Compass, definitely required some Airmanship.