Micah Zenko marks the occasion:
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the first use of an aircraft as an instrument of warfare. In a morbid symmetry with this year’s NATO-led intervention into the Libyan conflict, back in 1911, the pilots were Italian and the targets were Libyan. …
Over the last century, airpower has witnessed two parallel developments. The first, accurately predicted by [H.G.] Wells, relates to the farreaching capabilities of airpower in terms of the scope of combat operations, real-time target acquisition, destructive capabilities, and remarkable precision. The second development is mental, namely an increasing faith in the ability of airpower to achieve a set of discrete military and political missions, which once also required boots on the ground.
(Photo: A French Dauphin helicopter flies over the French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle, on March 24, 2011, on her way for a mission to Libya. By Eric Fefeberg/AFP/Getty Images.)
The Dish 