Originally Posted by JamesDevice
biggest mistake?
Supplying those jet engines to Russia in 1948
Without those the Russian jet development would have been delayed by at least ten years. No Korean War. No Vietnam war. No Badgers. No Bears. No Berlin Wall. No Cold War
Well maybe. The British aircraft industry had little use for the Nene. I bet noone at RR was arguing against selling to the Russians.
However, sourcing a few engines is one thing, actually manufacturing the things is quite another. They managed to build ICBMs and manned launchers, do we attribute all that to the fact they scooped up a few Nazi V2s?
In fact, one might make the case that if the Russians had not been given a few of those 'agricultural' Nenes they'd have been forced to develop the axial compressor designs that they'd found in Germany. Which would have put them still further ahead.