Originally Posted by
m.Berger
"We lost our advantage after the Comet debacle."
Fifty years after Kitty Hawk and nearly seventy years ago.
There has not been a financially successful British civilian light aircraft since WW2
(barring, possibly the Pup.) France and latterly Eastern Europe knock spots off us, EU or no EU.
Apart from the very successful British microlight industry, which has often delved into the light aircraft work. E.g. -
TLAC or
CFM . Nearly 400 Shadows is hardly trivial, nor is the several thousand aircaft built by
P&M and its two predecessor companies: . The Bulldog was built as military but is now widespread in civilian use and been highly successful in both. The Slingsby Firefly was both civilian and military and seems to have done fairly well. The
AMF Chevvron could have done better but wasn't an outright disaster.
And, as has already been said, the Islander.
G