So are Boeing thieving b***** or did Vickers (BAC) just do a good design that Boeing has followed ?
I'd look at it as Boeing had the emminent good sense to grab the best designers in the world and give them jobs! Couple their influence (having been brought up on Spits, Mossies, Comets, Vulcans etc), and combine it with the hard headed and realistic American economic approach, and you produce a brilliant financial winner like the 747 100/200, which after its further iteration to the -400 became THE world beater (and outstandingly good looking to boot!) for 30 years.
As for the Trident. Yes. A political committee aeroplane, a throwback to the days when central government politicians ran EVERYTHING 'for the good of the economy'. Did a great job! Blue Streak, TSR2, Phantom, P1127, Belfast, Trident....culminating in the ....Nimrod Early Warning! We made some good ones, but when they were bad..............