Which is why I call it a cottage engineering approach.
I think Jetex has a point. Whittle's attempts to develop the jet engine is a typical example.
Designing and building large aircraft requires massive amounts of highly skilled labour that can be hired and fired at will (Boeing policy).
With all the will in the world the UK or for that matter other European countries could never produce the manpower and funding required to go it alone, hence the joint venture that has produced Airbus