The first aerial combat was not fought with machine guns. It
was a French aircraft that shot down a German aircraft. The
pilot of the French aircraft was Frantz and his mechanic was
Quenault.
It did mention that the "battle" took place on October 5,
1914.
I found this in "Air Aces of the 1914-1918 War". 1959,
second edition. There are five authors and it is a
Harborough publication. I looked in my other Harborough
book: "Fighter Aircraft of the 1914-1918 War" and couldn't
find anything.
Sorry that I couldn't be of more assistance. Anybody else?
---Stephen Tontoni
stonto@seaccc.sccd.ctc.edu