| John Bevins Moisant | |
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Moisant in 1910 |
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| Born | 25 April 1868 Kankakee, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | 31 December 1910 (aged 42) New Orleans, United States |
| Occupation | Aviator |
| Parents | Medore Moisant Josephine Fortier |
John Bevins Moisant (April 25, 1868 – December 31, 1910) was a United States aviator.
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He was born in Kankakee, Illinois to Medore Moisant (1839-?) and Josephine Fortier (1841-1901). Both parents were French-Canadian immigrants. His siblings include: George Moisant (1866-1927); Ann Marguerite Moisant (1877-1957); Matilde Moisant (1878-1964) who was the second American woman to receive her pilot's license; Alfred J. Moisant (c1862-1929); Louisa Josephine Moisant (1882-1957); and possibly Eunice Moisant (1890-?) who was born in Illinois. Alfred and Matilde were also aviators. In 1880 the family was living in Manteno, Illinois and his father was working as a farmer.
He and his brothers moved to El Salvador in 1896 and bought sugar cane plantations that generated a substantial sum for the family. In 1909, José Santos Zelaya, president of Nicaragua asked John to go to France to investigate airplanes.
He went to an airshow in Reims, France, and he took flying lessons from Louis Blériot to begin his short but distinguished flying career. John Moisant won a number of aviation races and contests. He designed, built and flew the first metal aircraft, an experimental aluminium plane, in 1909.
On August 23, 1910, he flew the first flight with a passenger across the English Channel. His passenger was his mechanic, Albert Fileux, and he also took his cat called Mademoiselle Fifi.
With his brother, Alfred Moisant, he formed the Moisant International Aviators, a flying circus which went barnstorming around the United States. At the Belmont Air Show at Belmont Park, New York, he flew his Blériot monoplane around a balloon 10 miles (16 kilometers) away and returned to the racetrack in only 39 minutes, winning an $850 prize. Moisant collided his brakeless Beleriot with another plane causing it to flip over, but had repairs completed in time for the next event.[1] On October 30, 1910, at the same show, he competed in the race to fly around the Statue of Liberty. He won the race, beating out Claude Grahame-White, a British aviator, by 42.75 seconds. However, he was later disqualified because officials ruled that he had started late. According to a March 15, 1911 article in the New York Times, the $10,000 prize then went to the Count de Lesseps, not Grahame-White, because the latter had fouled during the race.
On December 30, 1910 in New Orleans, he raced his Blériot monoplane five miles (eight kilometers) against a Packard automobile, but lost. Moisant died on December 31, 1910 in Kenner, Louisiana in an air crash while making a preparatory flight in his attempt to win the Michelin Cup and its $4,000 prize. He was caught in a gust of wind as he was attempting to land and was thrown from his Bleriot monoplane landing on his head; he was not wearing a seat belt. Another theory has it that the Bleriot was underpowered as well as being nose heavy with too much fuel and the aircraft came down in a cemetery. He left an estate valued at $125,000. He was buried at the Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. His body was later moved to the Portal of Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation. (Fellow aviator Arch Hoxsey died the same day.)
The international airport of New Orleans, Louisiana was originally named Moisant Field in his honor, though it has since been renamed Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
The airport retains its "MSY" identifier, derived from the airport's origins as "Moisant Stock Yards" the name given to the land where Moisant's fatal airplane crash occurred, and upon which the airport was later built.
The National Air and Space Museum has the John B. Moisant Scrapbook Collection
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