At first I wasn't sure this direction would go over too well within the SFers community (and I'm still not sure, I was hoping for a little more feedback). This is the actually the third direction of this project (the first 2 were more simple variations on the above, mixed with a more traditional "darker" feel to what already exists). After much research and reading about GUI design I was somewhat inspired by NATOPS manuals and 50s to 70's aviation books and drawings. I wanted to update the look so I decided to go all out and make something very different which I'm hoping I can achieve (it's a big project and I am working it so it can be easily transferable for future TK projects like NA.
Unfortunately, I never knew these games even exited until you posted the cover art which I really like. They are now a part of my Aviation reference folder which grows daily as I delve further into this endeavour.