Lost British engineering

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by Marc Montgomery

would you agree-disagree that.... historically the Brits had wonderful and innovative theories, concepts and designs, but historically were also hampered by a failure to further develop and build upon those concepts and were bypassed by others?
and more so in civilian areas,..hampered by poor quality control and labour strife?

Marc,

It is true that Britain led in a lot of fields of engineering, but others came along a developed on what we were doing. Take the Austin Morris Mini, innovative in design layout and once in production, only improved in small ways to keep the costs down, but others seeing it were able to capitalise on what they saw. As for motorcycles, some of the Jap machines were very similar to BSA, Triumph, etc. It is always the same in any field, the first to come up with a good design is a genius, but it is those that develop that design who usually come out smelling of roses.