SIAI S.16

The SIAI S.16 was a flying boat that Societa Idrovolanti Alta Italia first designed as a civilian passenger carrier and later developed into a military reconnaissance-bomber, and it is claimed to be the most successful flying boat of the 1920s. The first version was powered by a single Fiat A.12bis engine; military versions added a bow cockpit for an observer-gunner and bomb racks, and the improved S.16ter used a Lorraine-Dietrich V-12. It was sold to Brazil, Spain, Turkey, Latvia and the Soviet Union, with about 103 in Italian naval service. In 1925 Francesco de Pinedo flew an S.16ter named Gennariello from Rome to Australia and Tokyo and back, about 56,000 kilometres in 202 days, a journey that earned him the first FAI Gold Air Medal.