I'm wondering just when Britain's aircraft ruled the world?
And the jet engine is one of those things that was invented by lots of people, but it's perhaps significant that von Ohain started late, but the first jet-engined aircraft to fly was German.
Lots of good aircraft, but ruling the world is the sort of thing that has been done by Junkers transports, or Douglas and then Boeing.
The history of Britain's industrial decline is pretty sad, but some people put it as starting in about the middle of the 19th century. Maybe one reason is the dissipation of effort producing more projects than the size of the economy could support.