Giulio Gavotti

Giulio Gavotti (17 October 1882 in Genoa – 6 October 1939) was an Italian lieutenant and pilot who fought in the Italo-Turkish War where he dropped the world's first aerial bomb from his Taube monoplane over the Ain Zara oasis in Libya.

Giulio Gavotti on a Farman biplane in Rome (1910)

Aerial bombardment

On 1 November 1911, he flew his early model Etrich Taube monoplane against the Ottoman military in Libya.^[1][2][3] He took four grenades ("Cipelli"^[3]) in a leather pouch, each of a size of grapefruit and weighing about four pounds.^[2] Flying at an altitude of 600 feet, Gavotti screwed in the detonators and tossed each munition over the side^[1]—three onto the Tajura oasis and one more onto a military camp at Ain Zara.^[2] This event is the first recorded airstrike launched from an airplane.^[4][3]

After this and further missions, the Ottoman Empire issued a protest. The dropping of bombs from balloons had been outlawed by the Hague Convention of 1899, but Italy argued that this ban did not extend to heavier-than-air craft.^[1]

The oldest known preserved Etrich Taube, in Vienna Technical Museum, is possibly a near-twin to the aircraft Gavotti flew in 1911, as both are said to have been powered with inline four-cylinder liquid-cooled powerplants.

Night mission

Gavotti performed the historically first night mission of a heavier-than-air aircraft. It took place as part of the same campaign in Libya on 4 March 1912.^[5]

See also

• 1911 in aviation
• Aerial bomb
• Bomber
• Tactical bombing