Privately funded British military aircraft?
It's lazy of me, I admit it, but rather than pulling out and plodding through my various reference works, can somebody vastly more familiar with the subject than I am give me the names of several important British privately funded military airplanes? (I'm doing an Aviation History magazine article on the Napier-Heston racer.)
I know the Sopwith Bulldog and Napier-Heston T.5 were, and I'm pretty sure the Spitfire was, but were there any others? DH Mosquito? Any of the late-'40s/early-'50s jet projects/
Am I right in thinking this was a largely British phenomenon, wealthy private individuals stepping in where the Government feared to tread? Certainly doesn't seem to happen here in the U. S...