Back to AtD. Interesting from the wiki on death from the air

[Mark Kohut]

The mournful whispering came across the sky......................
 
p. 927. The biplane slowly became visible 
From Freudenthal's How Aviation “Firsts” Took Place in Mexico (1945): 
"Although, at the beginning of the year 1911, there was practically no aviation in Mexico ... the events taking place in and over Mexico clearly foreshadowed the future importance of this weapon ... in February, 1911, Charles K. Hamilton ... took off from El Paso and flew to Ciudad Juarez, circling twice above the latter city. It was then held by the forces of the Mexican General Navarro. The soldiers, Hamilton reported, showed great fright when he appeared in the skies, running frantically for shelter. Then Roland Garros ... flew his monoplane over the same route, but at an altitude greater than Hamiton’s 900 feet. The following day Rene Simon flew directly over the camp of the insurrectionist General Orozco. These were the first scouting flights of an airplane under actual war conditions" (emphasis mine). 
Is the biplane on ATD p. 927 Hamilton’s flight? Here are the clues: 
    * What: the first wartime use of a plane for scouting (not long before aerial WWI combat) 
    * When: Feb. 1911 
    * Where: Ciudad Juarez at 900 feet over General Navarro's troops 
Here is more on Hamilton, including pictures of his planes (Garrow and Simon are also have pages on this site). 

The harsh hum filled the valley. Everybody looked up. The biplane slowly became visible...It might be bringing anything, to a degree of unpleasantness unknown so far in modern warfare,... 
This passage reminds me of a scene in the motion picture Lawrence of Arabia (1962): A harsh hum fills a desert valley. Lawrence of Arabia and Colonel Brighton look up and see a pair of Turkish biplanes slowly weaving through the valley to bomb an Arab encampment. Brighton disparages the Arabs for not following his advice to move out of range of the Turkish forces: "They simply will not understand what modern weapons do!"