Originally Posted by Blacksheep
Do you mean like the Supermarine Spitfire, Avro Lancaster, RR Merlin, English Electric Canberra, RR Avon, Blackburn Buccaneer, RR Spey, Hawker Harrier or RR Pegasus? Or were you thinking of something more recent?
Exactly. While I'd agree with proone that ongoing development has been lacking in the British industry over the years it was, until dismembered by political idiocy, world class. That is to say that while not every product was the best in the world, many were and let's not imagine some utopia where everything the Americans built was a class leader either. The British industry punched well above its weight, and continues to do so, and we should "celebrate" that (to use a nasty modern idiom), not try to diminish it.