25 July 1915
War in the Air
The British ace Lanoe Hawker, with help from air mechanic Ernest Elton developed a machine gun mount for attaching a Lewis gun to a Bristol Scout. While testing this on 25th July 1915 he drove off one German aircraft and downed two others, despite all three enemy aircraft being machine gun armed and two seaters. For this he earned the VC (Victoria Cross) being the first pilot to earn a VC for aerial combat.
How to cite this article: Rickard, J (28 December 2007), 25 July 1915, https://www.historyofwar.org/firstworldwar/daybyday/1915_07_25.html