An aviation first in the Mexican Revolution?
Two primitive biplanes made of wood and cloth approached each other early one November morning. The pilots exchanged a few loosely aimed pistol shots and then roared off in different directions.
It doesn’t sound like much, but it may well have been the first aerial dogfight the world had ever seen.
The pilots were American mercenaries who had hired themselves out to competing factions in the Mexican Revolution. Former San Francisco newspaper reporter Phil Rader was flying for General Huerta, while lifelong soldier of fortune Dean Lamb was in the pay of General Carranza. Rader had been dropping primitive bombs on Carranza’s forces, and Lamb had gone up to find him.
Years later, Lamb recalled that when the two planes met, Rader fired first. But it appeared to Lamb that Rader was aiming to miss, so he did the same! (Not that they had much chance of hitting each other, anyway, firing pistols from airplanes.) The two pilots gaily emptied their pistols, reloaded, and made another pass. When it was all done they saluted each other and then went their separate ways.
During World War I, when the two men served together, Lamb says they shared a few laughs about the whole affair.
Air combat has become far more deadly in the years since, but it seems to have never completely lost the touch of romance intro-
Dean Ivan Lamb’s colorful career also included working on the Panama Canal, serving in Britain’s Royal Flying Corps, founding the Honduran Air Force, taking part in several South American revolutions, getting indicted for jewel theft, acting as intelligence officer for the Flying Tigers, and testifying at Alger Hiss’s espionage trial. He was an incurable adventurer who once estimated that he served in thirteen different armies.
This is the plane Lamb flew, a Curtis Model D Pusher—a plane that surely did not offer a great deal of protection in aerial combat! To reload his pistol, Lamb had to hold the gun between his knees and put the bullets in with one hand while holding on to the stick with the other.