aerialbombardment

Another Bain photo of first aerial bombing:

This is probably in late 1911. See www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet_print.asp?... This is probably in late 1911. "On 10 October the school conducted the first military trials of a bombsight and dropping device which had been invented by Riley E. Scott, a former coast artillery officer. The tests took place at College Park in an Army Wright B plane flown by Milling; Scott, lying prone on the lower wing, operated the bombing device, which was placed directly in front of the wing." Not long after, Scott won a $5,000 Michelin prize in a bomb-dropping competition in Paris.

Thanks for the information. Will submit for review and possible addition to the catalog record.

An interesting set of photos, perhaps more with regard to what they don't show. For instance not a single photo of the aircraft T B Suitor flew in or lots of damaged enemy property! I assume he was with either a 5th AF B-25 or A-20 unit (or both), since such aircraft are seen in the distance in some of the photos. They also show how difficult it was to hit any useful targets coming in on the deck. In many photos it is hard to distinguish anything useful what so ever. Lots of parachute fragment bombs were used and this is also confirmed by the photos. It also looks like they were a bit prone to drift, which can't have been any good for accuracy. We also see how dispersed many of the Japanese aircraft were. No the air to ground war was never easy.... Stig