It is a very great honour to me to have to speak this evening before this learned assembly, and I have to thank you very sincerely for the occasion which you have offered me of discussing before you a very important question, one which is of interest to the whole of the aeronautical world, namely, the problem of the helicopter.

My aim will be but modest, for I shall simply attempt to develop those essential arguments which have given me such entire confidence in the practicability of this type of heavier-than-air machine, and I shall be content if at the end of this paper I have been able, not to convince you, but at least to interest you in the cause which I have at heart.

The helicopter is not a competitor of the aeroplane. It is an entirely different type of aircraft, but the one is the complement of the other, and if their respective uses are not the same, they nevertheless will be of equal importance in that immense future which we all believe to be reserved for aircraft.