Originally Posted by
RickNRoll
Unlike plane makers, engine makers are doing it hard. The financial risk of bleeding edge engines is huge and losing them money.
Indeed. Engine makers have long been the high end of technological push. The first engines in the 707/DC*, the JT3C, smoked and were inefficient, and often got stripped off and replaced after just a few years (many 707s and all the DC8s). The first widebody big fan engines likewise were plagued with similar issues. What a good thing those aircraft had a flight engineer to control it all. Rolls Royce were also on the early 707s and DC8s, but fell behind as they got insufficient sales for the huge, even then R&D that continued to be required.
If you want, you can go right back to piston times, when there were comparable long-term issues with production engines. Not for nothing were the last few years of piston aircraft production just thrown away worthless when the first jets appeared.