Death of an Industry

The British Aircraft Industry since the end of World War II has given birth to more cancelled programs than any other nation. The real tragedy of this fact is not so much the massive waste of public monies, but the acute loss of opportunity and overseas sales, both military and civil, that inflicted the British aircraft industry inflicted from the obsessive and inane interference in almost every design project by ill-informed politicians that ensured the . . . DEATH OF AN INDUSTRY

One of the most tragic technicides this century has been the slow, agonising and deliberate death of Britain’s aircraft industry . . .

A terrible series of on-again, off-again moves by people who literally had no real idea of aircraft, aerodynamic research or anything else to do with the development and advancement of aviation, brought about this untimely demise.

What happened during the immediate postwar years was the beginning of an example to the rest of the world in letting politicians muck about with technology. There is indeed an oblique object lesson to be learnt here by Australian politicians.

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