Captain Simeon Petrov developed the idea and created several prototypes by adapting different types of grenades and increasing their payload. In 1912, during the First Balkan War, Bulgarian Air Force pilot Christo Toprakchiev suggested the use of aircraft to drop 'bombs' (called grenades in the Bulgarian army at this time) on Turkish positions. Historically, the first use was by Giulio Gavotti on 1 November 1911, during the Italo-Turkish War. The first bombs dropped from a heavier-than-air aircraft were grenades or grenade-like devices. The first bombs delivered to their targets by air were single bombs carried on unmanned hot air balloons, launched by the Austrians against Venice in 1849 during the First Italian War of Independence.

From left to right: explosive, 250 kg concrete practice bomb, 50 kg concrete practice bomb. These include unguided gravity bombs, guided bombs, bombs hand-tossed from a vehicle, bombs needing a large specially-built delivery-vehicle, bombs integrated with the vehicle itself (such as a glide bomb), instant-detonation bombs, or delay-action bombs.Īs with other types of explosive weapons, aerial bombs aim to kill and injure people or to destroy materiel through the projection of one or more of blast, fragmentation, radiation or fire outwards from the point of detonation.Įarly bombs German aerial bombs from World War II.

The use of aerial bombs is termed aerial bombing.Īerial bombs include a vast range and complexity of designs. Engineers usually develop such bombs to be dropped from an aircraft.

GBU-31 JDAM aerial bombs in the hangar bay of the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71)Īn aerial bomb is a type of explosive or incendiary weapon intended to travel through the air on a predictable trajectory. Explosive or incendiary weapon intended to travel through the air on a predictable trajectory

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