Reticle Shooters - Xevious the first?

[The Eidolon]

I'm trying to find out which shooter was the first to have two
separate planes of gameplay, ground and air, and which game
has the first to have a bombing reticle to target ground enemies.
So far, Xevious is the first I've found with either feature. Does
anyone know of an earlier one?

[spl]

Defender had air and land - you had to shoot the baddies in the sky to save the people on the ground.

If you mean enemies on the ground then I think you are right in saying Xevious was the first in those categories. I'm pretty sure it was the first vertical forced scrolling shooter also.