The opening frames flying boats as an answer to the uneven infrastructure of the 1920s and 1930s. A large body of water could serve aircraft that would have needed an expensive prepared runway on land, which mattered for long-range travel and military movement alike. The same flexibility also made isolated routes accessible without building a conventional airport. This makes water part of the aviation network rather than merely the surface on which a specialized aircraft happens to land.
Chapter · 0:02-3:20
Water as interwar aviation infrastructure
Flying boats turned existing harbours, coasts, and large bodies of water into practical long-range aviation infrastructure before airfields were widespread.