JP...thanks for that more detailed perspective....and of course we all know how good the Airbus wing design has been over the decades since
...one of our few remaining areas of world class expertise...so something was indeed preserved from that decade of drastic cuts and indecision and self-destruction etc.
That said...rather like that described in the 1955 precis on the state of the UK industry above, what was clearly lacking was a sense of National vision and confidence...based on clear political and industrial determination to maintain Britain in the forefront (or return us to the forefront maybe more apt). It needed a politically accepted vision that mass air travel was on the way and that even if we did not overtake Boeing, Lockheed, MacDak and Airbus as No1, with the right product made at the right price, we could at least take a very large and profitable share of that market.....We all know that a multinational committee driven product can turn out to be more expensive or create expensive delays for a variety of reasons...Given the recent lessons of Comet, Trident and the more successful 1-11, I feel sure the 3-11 was the right idea to make its mark.
Subsequently of course, we gradually withdrew from being such a player in the ever growing mass airliner market, despite some smaller successes based on late 50s/early 60s designs such as 748, 125 and Jetsream...even the 146 was a bit player in the great scheme of things..and in the end we gave up on those too....
To me this is the greatest blunder of all...the UK not being in the lead in civil aircraft design and production and subsequent profits adding to our prosperity (coming into the UK not some foreign account), high tech industrialemployment and prestige...we have no other choice now but being a bit player (however large) in a European conglomerate....C'est la Vie I suppose.