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Welcome to a new series that will chronologise (roughly) the history of military aviation. In this first episode we look at the dawn of military aviation, when aircraft are used for the first time in warfare. Many assume that military aviation was born from WW1, when in fact it was technically in its infancy. The true birth of military aviation (at least in terms of aircraft, and not balloons/airships) occurred in 1911 with the Italo-Turkish War. This conflict saw many milestones: The first use of aircraft in reconnaissance, the first time they would be used to direct artilery fire, and the first offensive use of aircraft in the form of bombing, all of which were accomplished by the Italian Army's air flotilla. Another theatre of war opened up with the first Balkan War in 1913, which saw aircraft used on both sides by the Ottoman Empire, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. Important lessons would be learned in this early conflicts, and many countries observing it quickly made adjustments to their
