The Deutsches Museum in Munich holds a rich collection of aerial cameras. For the first time since the post-war period, parts of these devices will constitute an independent theme, called Luftbildfotografie, within the museum’s renovated historical aviation section. In this paper, Quagliati analyses the reasons for this curatorial choice while offering insights into the material – and animal – infrastructures necessary to realize aerial views at the beginning of the 20th century. Focusing on specific cameras (photographic rocket, pigeon photography, photographic gun and others), Quagliati also describes the institutionalization of aerial photography as a military discipline in World War I. She explores epistemological implications and public reception of airborne imagery through the material and technological features of aerial cameras as well as the circumstances that brought these devices to the Deutsches Museum.