Aerial bombing from an aeroplane (Ain Zara)
Bombardeo aéreo desde un avión (Ain Zara)
- Date
- 1 de noviembre de 1911 · confidence high
- Place
- Ain Zara, Tripoli, Libya
- Credited to
- Giulio Gavotti (Italian aviation)
- Field
- Conflict
What it is
In the Italo-Turkish War, Lieutenant Gavotti dropped four 2 kg grenades by hand from an Etrich Taube monoplane onto Turkish positions at Ain Zara and Tajura. It was the first bombing attack from an aeroplane.
Austria had dropped bombs from unmanned balloons over Venice in 1849; Gavotti's is the first bombing from a fixed-wing aircraft, and damage was minimal.
What it led to
- First World War bombers
- strategic bombing and anti-aircraft defence
- military aviation as an independent arm