I guess I starting flying in the GPS age. I also started racing cars in the Halon age.. early 70's. It was a dangerous era, one that showed that the early forms of Halon we carried on-board were possibly fatal. Not sure that was what we wanted to accomplish. The systems grew in sophistication and later my Formula 1 McLaren, as all cars of the time, even had a small remote oxygen tank for breathing if fire took over the cockpit. It also had various infrared sensors for the Halon system. I guess I could thank Niki Lauda and others for making the needs apparent. I shudder when I recall some of the early race cars I drove, Lotus Formula 1 of the early 60's in which I had racing gas on both sides, over the legs, and under the seat.
If one chose to be serious about fire suppression on-board, there are some nice systems, remotely mounted available these days.