Actually, the US lagged behind other colonial powers in this respect, mainly because the Army had no aircraft suitable for bombing before WW1.
     The 1st Aero Squadron (8 planes) was activated in 1913. Three years later the squadron took part in Pershing's Punitive Expedition into northern Mexico.  The planes were Curtiss JN4s, useful for scouting but nothing else. In fact, they weren't even useful for that because within weeks mechanical failures had grounded the entire squadron.  When the US entered WW1 in 1917, the Army possessed only 55 airplanes, 51 of which were unsuitable for combat.
     After WW1 it was a different story.  Marine aviation played a significant role in the Nicaraguan Intervention in the late 20s.  But by then the use of aircraft in colonial wars had become routine.  Here the RAF led the way, using aircraft against insurgents in Afghanistan, Somalia, and (of all places) Iraq.
     There's a good general account of "colonial air control" in a recently published study: Air Power in Small Wars: Fighting Insurgents & Terrorists by James Corum and Wray Johnson.

My mind is aglow with whirling transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention. -- Hedley Lamarr.