I thank you very much for the honour of your request to read this lecture before you.

In preparing this lecture I anticipated your permission to give you only some personal experience and my personal opinion regarding large all-metal seaplanes, for I know rather little about the machines of other constructors.

There is no branch of engineering where a big machine does not give a distinct advantage over an equally powerful combination of several small units. In our special case of the seaplane, these general advantages of the big unit are so obvious that they were recognised very early, and therefore I must not take your time by repeating them. I only mention the most outstanding quality of the large seaplane, i.e., its increased seaworthiness.