Today is the centennial of the first bombing made from a heavier-than-air craft: Tripoli, Libya

[PurityOfEssence]

November 1, 1911

[The Magistrate]

1. This Is Probably the Aeroplane Involved, Sir

It is a Rumpler Taube, captioned, at least, as having been photographed in Libya in 1912.

The pilot's name was Lt. Gavotti.

This gives a better sense of what a Taube machine looked like,though it is not that particular example:



This is another Italian machine in Libya at that time; a Bleriot XI.



This is a Bleriot in flight.

[FarCenter]

3. Italo-Turkish War

The Italo-Turkish or Turco-Italian War (also known in Italy as the Guerra di Libia, "Libyan war", and in Turkey as the Trablusgarp Savaşı, "Tripolitan war") was fought between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Italy from September 29, 1911 to October 18, 1912.

As a result of this conflict, Italy was awarded the Ottoman provinces of Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica. These provinces together formed what became known as Libya.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italo-Turkish_War

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So Libya, like Iraq, is another unstable conglomerate of three Ottoman provinces.

[PurityOfEssence]

4. Yes, quite correct.

Odd how the monoplane was being successfully used by these and others like Moraine-Saulnier, but the bulk of the warplanes of the Great War to come were biplanes...

[The Magistrate]

6. At That Time, Sir, Biplanes Were The More Advanced Design Pattern

They offered greater structural strength, better climbing and ceiling, and better manouverability, as well as better visibility downwards in many cases. Greater strength allowed more powerful motors, so that any margin in lesser drag a braced monoplane might have enjoyed did not in practice consistently produce any better speed. Monoplane did not involve any particular advantage over biplane design aerodynamically till cantilever wing construction became feasible.

[TheMightyFavog]

5. There's a full sized replica of the Taube at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

In additions to Italy, the Germans used the Taube as a recon plane in the early years of WWI.

[burrowowl]

7. Thank you Sir

for the reminder.

[MineralMan]

2. And 34 years later, the first nuclear weapon used in wartime was dropped

from another aircraft on Hiroshima, Japan. The advancement in aeronautics and weaponry in the first half of the 20th century was extraordinary and devastating.