My first program after joining Boeing was what became the 767/757 - no flight engineers (aside from the very first 767 - VA001 - which was built as a 3 crew, later updated to 2 crew before I ever flew on it).
Aside from takeoff/landing, during flight testing I spend the majority of my time in the flight deck - generally observing the engine displays. Early on I was informed there was an 'invisible wall' just aft of the thrust levers - no one except the pilots was to
ever touch anything forward of that 'invisible wall' without explicit permission and direction of the pilots.
In the late 1980's, I was involved in a flight test on a 747-300 - the first time I'd been on the flight deck of an aircraft with a proper flight engineer. It was bizarre (and a bit unsettling) to see the flight engineer repeatedly violating that 'invisible wall' to fine-tune the throttles and flick switches on the center console.
It was a different time
