1985

The first aerial combats took place over France in World War I. In the earliest combats, known as dogfights, pilots often were armed only with pistols. If the planes carried bombs, they were aimed and dropped by hand. The earliest planes were built as scouts, not fighting machines.

The first military helicopters to fly with the American Air Commando in 1944 during its operations in Burma were experimental machines. But the following year the Sikorsky R-4s came into service with the American army for reconnaissance. They had been developed by Ivan Sikorsky’s company.