Curiously, however, both Masson and Dean stayed on in Mexico in an unofficial capacity, perhaps hoping to collect the back pay that was still owed to them. Masson was concerned that Colonel Obregon was now talking about bombing cities; however, he spent some time checking out Gustavo Salinas in the aircraft during several flights at Hermosillo, the capital city of Sonora. Dean continued to work on the plane and its engine.

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The sequel to the history-making events at Guaymas is as interesting as the bombing attempts themselves. Before the summer of 1913 was over, another first for military aviation took place in Mexico when two American mercenaries engaged in what might have been the first dogfight in history. Fought with revolvers, this engagement pitted Dean Lamb, flying for the revolutionaries in a Curtiss pusher, against Phil Rader, flying for the Federal government in a Christofferson. Both planes were similar to the Martin flown by Didier Masson, but the fliers were even more exposed in that both of those aircraft lacked a stabilizer or rudder in front of the pilot. The duel took place near the town of Naco and ended in a draw, with neither pilot gaining any advantage over the other.

On September 8, 1914, about a month following the start of World War I, Masson went to France, where, after serving briefly in his old infantry unit, he returned to aviation. Following training at Pau, he gained a French military flying certificate on May 10, 1915, and flew Caudron G.IV two-seaters with Escadrille C.18 until September. Masson then trained on Nieuport fighters and joined N.68, flying with the unit until April. After a two-month period as a instructor at Cazeaux, he was assigned to a new squadron made up of American volunteers–N.124 at Bar-le-Duc–on June 16. Masson was the 13th pilot to serve in what was later known as the Lafayette Escadrille. Edwin C. Parsons, a well-known American in that outfit, later said of Masson: "He was unquestionably the first war aviator and without doubt the only man alive who has comprised in his own person the entire air force of a nation. When he joined the Escadrille, he had seen more war flying and probably more hours in the air than all the rest of the gang put together." Ironically, Parsons had briefly served as a mercenary pilot in Pancho Villa's Armia del Norte–a rival of Obregon's army.

Masson held the rank of adjutant in the French army, similar to a warrant officer in the American military. He flew a number of combat missions and shot down a Fokker fighter on October 12, 1916. He left the unit on October 8, 1917, flew in defense of Paris in N.471 from October 10 to 28, and then became an instructor at the American Aviation Instruction Center at Issoudun.

Those early aviators had many stories to tell, and in the telling, the stories often were embellished beyond recognition. For example, in one of the many histories written about the romantic Lafayette Escadrille, the story of Masson's snagged bomb over Guaymas is retold in such a way as to have the bombardier become a pioneer wing-walker who worked his way out onto the flimsy frame of the aircraft to cut the bomb loose. No one knows which version of the story is correct.

Sonora was used briefly again by the rebels in mid-May of 1914, with Gustavo Salinas making several flights during an attack on the Federal gunboat Morales. The 1,200-ton vessel had been one of the larger prerevolutionary gunboats of the Mexican navy, mounting two 4-inch guns, six 6-pounders and a 14-inch torpedo tube. She had run aground in the outer harbor at Mazatlan, after which she was boarded and blown up by the Constitutionalists.

Obregon, by then a general, proudly announced that his plane had bombed the gunboat, but it was obvious that the explosives planted within her hull by ground troops had done most of the damage. Newspapers reported that several civilians in Mazatlan, including a baby, were killed during the aerial attack, thus demonstrating that Masson's concerns about Obregon's intentions for the plane were well-founded.

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