Technological advances in the second I half of the 19th Century, including those in mechanical engineering and mass production techniques, had much to do with the advent of practical military aircraft early in the 20th Century. These made possible not only reciprocating engines of tolerable weight, but also automatic weapons that could exploit brief firing opportunities in aerial combat. In 1861 Richard Gordon Galling invented the gun that was to bear his name - it was initially manufactured with between four and ten barrels, arranged in parallel around a central axis, about which they were manually rotated. Ammunition was gravity-fed from a hopper. Looking for a better solution, in 1884 Hiram Maxim demonstrated a self-powered (recoil-operated), belt-fed, single-barrel fully-automatic weapon, which was widely adopted and copied. The machine-gun had arrived. Aircraft were already beginning to have an impact on ground warfare. The French had introduced battlefield observation balloons in 1793, and balloons were used to take messages and VIPs out of a besieged Paris in 1870. The first fully-controllable airship was demonstrated by Renard and Krebs in 1884. As use of the third dimension threatened to take war to civilian populations, the Hague Conference of 1889 banned the discharging of all projectiles and explosives from any type of aerial machine, but nobody paid attention.
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机译：19世纪下半叶的技术进步，包括机械工程和批量生产技术的进步，与20世纪初期实用军用飞机的出现有很大关系。这些不仅使往复式发动机具有可承受的重量，还使自动武器得以在空战中利用短暂的射击机会。 1861年，理查德·戈登·加林（Richard Gordon Galling）发明了以他的名字命名的枪-最初制造时使用的是四到十个枪管，枪管围绕中心轴线平行排列，手动绕枪管旋转。弹药是由料斗以重力方式喂食的。为了寻找更好的解决方案，希拉姆·马克西姆（Hiram Maxim）在1884年展示了一种自行供电（反冲操作），皮带进给的单筒全自动武器，该武器被广泛采用和仿制。机关枪已经到达。飞机已经开始对地面战争产生影响。法国人于1793年引入战场观察气球，1870年，气球被用来从被围困的巴黎带走消息和VIP。1884年，雷纳德和克雷布斯展示了第一艘完全可控的飞艇。为了对平民发动战争，1889年的海牙会议禁止从任何类型的航空器上发射所有弹丸和炸药，但没有人注意。
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