I recently heard of the Tulsa Massacre(1921), in which a lynch mob used airplanes to firebomb a neighborhood in Tulsa. My question is this: have there been any other times that airplanes (not helicopters) have been used as means of suppression against other US citizens?
Battle of Blair Mountain (August - September 1921)
Privately owned airplanes, directed by the Logan County Sheriff, were used to bomb miners. In addition, the US Army Air Corps deployed aircraft (under the direction of Billy Mitchell) for the purpose of breaking up fortifications but were ultimately used for reconnaissance.
Blair Mountain: The History Of A Confrontation
Shogan, Robert (2006) The Battle of Blair Mountain: The Story of America's Largest Labor Uprising.
There were many reports of air actions against the black population of Tulsa, in what became known as the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.
As the mobs of armed whites rushed into the south ern end of the Af ri can Amer i can dis trict, air planes — manned by whites — also ap peared over - head. As Dr. R.T. Bridgewater, a well-respected black Tulsa phy si cian, later de scribed what hap - pened: Shortly af ter we left a whis tle blew. The shots rang from a ma chine gun lo cated on Standpipe Hill near my res i dence and aeroplanes be gan to fly over us, in some in - stances very low to the ground. A cry was heard from the women say ing, “Look out for the aeroplanes, they are shoot ing upon us.”
From the official report by the State of Oklahoma on the riot, done in 2001.
The report concludes it was "likely" whites used some airplanes and shot and dropped gasoline bombs from them, but they were probably limited in number. Sources on this are mixed overall. Not that any of this diminishes the scale of the horror. It's worth reading into the whole event.