Originally Posted by
Tarnished
I don't get the approach or attitude that says - unless you have a proven track record and vast previous experience you cannot possibly succeed in a new endeavour.
I have some faith in the Great British underdog, small teams, well managed with sound governance - think Kelly Johnson's Skunk Works. Trick is in these days of scrutiny and (over) regulation its very easy to quickly be forced to grow beyond efficient size.
There has to be money for prototypes then. Smaller companies, made up of people with new ideas and skills who see a chance to do something better need a chance to try their stuff out without it having to be everything all at once. That may be impossible given the way governments of the past forced the aircraft industry to consolidate so much that it doesn't actually make aircraft anymore. Now the area of innovation is drones (e.g. windracers) because they aren't so impossibly difficult to get started with. Malloy got R&D money for example (at least I think it did) and then when its drones were picked up in the US it was bought by BAE.