First bomber?

The first pic is misleading… note that the caption of the biplane photo is labeled “Rome, 1910”, not “Libya 1911”. If you go down the page, you find that he performed the bombing from another aircraft: As for the “Harman”… perhaps it was a model name, not the manufacturer.

I found the following pic, sold on-line: “Vintage ’10s Aviation Curtiss Harman Post Biplane Photo”. [URL=”http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-10s-aviation-curtiss-harm…“]Or perhaps it was indeed a Farman.

Thanks everyone for that. I did note that the photograph featured a different aircraft than that used for the “bombing mission” but I must say that I had not heard of the Curtiss Harman before. As the Farman brothers were just starting their production at that time, I wondered if it might have been a BBC error (surely not!)?

The Italians used the Farman, Bleriot and Taube with the Squadriglia di Tripoli.

John

Fascinatiing – I did not know that there was aerial conflict before WW1.

The first pic is misleading… note that the caption of the biplane photo is labeled “Rome, 1910”, not “Libya 1911”.

If you go down the page, you find that he performed the bombing from another aircraft:

Gavotti dropped the bombs from a Taube (Dove) monoplane, designed by Austrian Igo Etrich

As for the “Harman”… perhaps it was a model name, not the manufacturer.

I found the following pic, sold on-line: “Vintage ’10s Aviation Curtiss Harman Post Biplane Photo”. http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-10s-aviation-curtiss-harman-73190653

Or perhaps it was indeed a Farman.