On UK home leave, gazing out of my daughter's living room window I see the remains of what was once the De Havilland factory at Hatfield. Its now an odd combination of Booker warehouses, housing estate and university campus. Beside the shiny new 'T-Mobile' office blocks along Comet Way, the old De Havilland design offices still stand - the exterior is listed, as is the main gate. The Trident assembly building is also grade three listed, but in danger of falling down. Sad.
But the aircraft that were designed and built there were certainly not failures. Not such a great success as the B727 perhaps, but penetrating the US market was always a dodgy business. 'Free Trade' is merely an illusion, mealy mouthed words - the US has so many invisible trade barriers.
Brooklands is in much the same state as Hatfield but the VC10 is still in service and as beautiful as the day she made her maiden flight on 29th June 1962, almost forty three years ago - the RAF are still flying some of their originals, thirty nine years since they were delivered.
Hardly a failure.