Is current western aerospace industry consolidation hurting creativity even further?

Is it fair to say that when we end up with only 2 1/2 major aircraft manufacturers in the US and around 4 in Europe that we are doomed to have less and less variety and revolutionary concepts? How come many decades after the groundbreaking Boeing Dash 80 we are still producing airliners of conservative and traditional designs (albeit using new materials I must admit…).

Is there no hope in the near future? At least in China they are developing some 4-5 new fighters at the same time… But there the can swing safely from the real economy to the controlled monopoly money economy (Yuan)…
Please my Chinese friends I say all this meaning absolutely no disrespect, I honestly envy such liberty. I realy think China is in the fast road to inherit
(at least) the manufacturing side of the world’s (or at least the US’ civilian ) aerospace business, it’s just a matter of time. 😉 India may end up racing for the second place with Russia and Brazil…

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[]s Hammer