TooPlaneCrazy7 wrote:

Hi all,
I live near a fort called "Fort Brown" in Brownsville, Texas and there is
an historical marker that reads, "'First Army US Warplane', on this spot
was made the first flight of US Army plane to be fired on in armed
hostilities on April 20, 1915." Then it goes on about how the planes were
a group of signal corps officers who were out scouting the area near the
fort due to heightened Mexican hostilities in the vicinity. The planes
were hit by machine gun fire, etc. I also read elsewhere that (not on the
marker, but from an autobiography of a pilot) that the first aviation
dogfight also ocurred nearby when two pilots with pistols duked it out in
the skies with their Curtiss Pusher aircraft.

Does anyone have anymore info?

Said "first dogfight" happened in 1913, between two American pilots
working as mercenaries for opposite sides of the Mexican civil war.
Their names were Dean Lamb and Phil Rader. Lamb was flying a Curtiss
product, while Rader piloted a "Christofferson". Neither was reported to
have scored any hits on his opponent.

-Marc
--
Marc Reeve
actual email address after removal of 4s & spaces is
c4m4r4a4m4a4n a4t c4r4u4z4i4o d4o4t c4o4m