Wilbur Wright enabled the first use of airplanes in combat by teaching two Italian officers to fly in 1909. The Italians used airplanes in Libya during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911. That conflict marked the first use of reconnaissance aircraft (a Bleriot XI on Oct. 23, 1911) and the first bombing attack (a German Etrich Taube on Nov. 1, 1911). The Italians even took photographs from their newly discovered intelligence platform. However, many nations, including the U.S., lacked vision as to the airplane’s potential. Although U.S. Army aviators fired the first machine gun off an airplane in 1912, the Army general staff commented that “thoughts of air battles were purely the product of the young fliers’ fertile imaginations.” As the world entered a major conflict in 1914, the airplane and the art of air intelligence took on an entirely new significance.