Aerial bomb-aiming, 1916

A flight lieutenant of the Royal Naval Air Service prepares to throw a 16-pound high-explosive bomb from the rear cockpit of the gondola of an SSZ (Sea Scout Zero) airship, circa 1916. By this stage of the war the most common bombs dropped by British aeroplanes were 20, 100 and 112-pounders. Early aerial bomb-aiming techniques were, however, based more on hope than on science.