The First Shot Fired from an Airplane

Aug. 20, 1910. Army Lt. Jacob Fickel fires a .30-caliber Springfield rifle at the ground while flying as a passenger in a Curtiss biplane over Sheepshead Bay Track near New York, N.Y. This is the first time a military firearm has been discharged from an airplane.

The first shot fired from an airplane occurred on Aug. 20, 1910, at Sheepshead Bay race track near New York City. With Glenn Curtiss piloting, Lt. Jacob E. Fickel fired a rifle at a 3'x5' target from an altitude of 100 feet. The next month, Fickel and Curtiss repeated the experiment at Boston, this time using an Army semi-automatic pistol.