Question 411: Who am I and what were my two milestone achievements?(Captain Carlo Piazza + see post)

It is Lt. Giulio Gavotti.
Fought in the Italo-Turkish War 1911 - 1912.
The first two things in this war were the first aerial reconnaissance mission and first bomb thrown from a plane... But some sources say that first pilot to do this was Captain Carlo Piazza?
 
Correction: Captain Carlo Piazza flew the first reconnaissance mission, and Lt. Giulio Gavotti flew the first bombing and the first night mission.
 
Bob_Rock11 said:
Lt. Giulio Gavotti flew the first bombing and the first night mission.
Click to expand...

That's correct, well done.

Nine days after Piazza’s reconnaissance flight, on November 1, Second Lieutenant Giolio Gavotti, in an Etrich Taube, would carry out the first aerial bombardment. In May 2011, the BBC World Service released copies of the letters the young lieutenant wrote home. “Today I have decided to throw bombs from the aeroplane,” Gavotti wrote to his father. “It is the first time that we will try this and if I succeed, I will be really pleased to be the first person to do it.” Gavotti headed for Ain Zara, a small oasis, where he expected to find 2,000 Arab fighters and Turkish troops. “After a while, I notice the dark shape of the oasis,” he wrote. “With one hand, I hold the steering wheel, with the other I take out one of the bombs and put it on my lap…. I take the bomb with my right hand, pull off the security tag and throw the bomb out, avoiding the wing. I can see it falling through the sky for couple of seconds and then it disappears. And after a little while, I can see a small dark cloud in the middle of the encampment. I am lucky. I have struck the target.”

On the 1 November, 1911, he flew his early model Etrich Taube monoplane against Ottoman military in Libya.[1][2][3] He took four grenades ("Cipolli"[3]) to a leather pouch, each of a size of grapefruit and weighing[2] approximately four pounds. Flying at an altitude of 600 feet, Gavotti screwed in the detonators and tossed each missile over the side[1] - three onto the Tagiura (Jagiura) oasis, and one more onto military camp at Ain Zara.[2][3] Gavotti’s scheme injured no one.[4]
The oldest known preserved Etrich Taube, in Vienna, Austria, 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.
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 aircraft.[1]

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.
 
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