Before radar and heat seeking missiles air war was crude and rather brutal. Planes and balloons were first only used to observe ground movements.

Flying in these primitive machines was very cold and nauseating, because of the fumes.

Than pilots started to shoot at each others with their pistols, which started the aerial arms race.

Aerial bombardments started with hand grenades and even bricks. The first bombs were dropped by hand - usually by the observer - who often operated the second machine to the rear.

Many crews didn’t have parachutes in the beginning - but most of them would not have been able to jump anyway. Their planes didn’t offer any protection from enemy machine gun fire or burning engines or fuel, so they were often killed after a serious hit.

We humans do really stupid stuff to kill each other.