The article did not say anything about its performance. It was under-powered although not to 'Spruce Goose' levels of barely getting off the ground. If you ign

The article did not say anything about its performance. It was under-powered although not to 'Spruce Goose' levels of barely getting off the ground. If you ignore the performance then it seems like a nice posh plane, throw in some commercial acumen and knowledge of flight and the plane was an obvious lemon. But at least they tried. Plus so much came out of Filton over the years - Concorde being the example - that this public works programme can be considered to have given the taxpayer value for money. As per your original comment, putting more seats in was a non-starter. The plane took considerably longer to travel distance so it needed ocean liner rather than Ryan Air comfort extras. Other planes, e.g. from Pan Am, also had the luxury features and there was no down-market in the early days of aviation.