Last updated: 23 march, 2011 - 16:50 GMT
Libya target for world's first aerial bombing 100 years ago
The plane used for the first ever aerial bombing was a 1910 Taube similar to this 1915 model on display in Paris
The air strikes currently being carried out on targets in Libya could hardly be more different from the first aerial attack on the country.
In 1911, Libya was the target for the world's very first aerial bombing mission: an attack on Turkish positions in Tripoli.
On 1 November of that year, Lieutenant Cavotti of the Italian Air Fleet dropped four 2kg bombs, by hand, over the side of his aeroplane.
Professor Gerard Jan De Groot is from University of St Andrews and author of The Bomb: A Life.
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First broadcast 23 March 2011
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