Classic case of first mover disadvantage. Their failures helped Boeing learn some tough lessons about metal stress, and Boeing got many aspects of the fuselage of their first jet liner so right they're still used on the latest generation of the 737 which will finish in the top two biggest selling aircraft this year. Of course, us Brits learned tough lessons of a different kind with the Concorde: no matter how brilliant the engineering is, you need a mass market to break even on an aerospace programme.
It's not as if the UK's contribution to Airbus or other parts of the aviation supply chain today is insubstantial though.