Airplane Warfare

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Before the arrival of the airplane, warfare was conducted almost entirely by a country's infantry and navy. Up to this time in history, aerial warfare had played no significant role in military strategy. Balloons had been used for observation and propaganda distribution during the Napoleonic wars and the Franco-Prussian conflict of 1870-1871 (Balloons in the Military). The airplane had also been used in a limited role for bombardment missions during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-1912 (Wilkin). World War One was the first time aerial warfare was used on an immense scale, demonstrating the significance of using aircraft in shaping the outcome of a war. The transformation of aerial warfare directly influenced the evolution of aircraft development, and the role aircraft would play in World War One.
Towards the start of the war, the strategic value of air machines was met with a specific
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The feeling was so widespread by most countries leaders that The 1899 Hague Peace Conference put on record that using aircraft for dropping or shooting from the air during wartime was considered to be a war crime (Hague Convention). It was at that time the conference members decided the role of the airplane could only be used for reconnaissance, thus limiting the airplanes use at the beginning of WWI (Hague Convention). Changing public views and literary fiction started to breed new ideas about the use of airplanes in warfare. The most famous writer to explore the idea was H.G. Wells. He wrote The War In The Air, a book about the future in which battle is conducted with planes (Wells). As World War One continued, more aerial warfare strategies developed, which led to the development of advanced modern aircraft, which in turn led to the idea of air supremacy and strategic bombing, becoming decisive factors in the outcome of major

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