Men are seen posing around a lightweight Bleriot airplane at a show staged by Moisant’s International Aviators in January 1911. Siblings John, Alfred, and Matilde—the latter being the second American woman to become a licensed pilot—barnstormed through the United States, Mexico, and Cuba with other top fliers during those two years, reportedly earning more than $100,000 each. The most famous Moisant brother, John, had learned to fly in France from Louis Bleriot himself and was the first to carry a passenger from Paris to London. He was the owner of a modified Bleriot monoplane, which he dubbed the Statue of Liberty, the first single-wing aircraft to fly in the United States. One month before the Houston meet, John Moisant was killed in a plane crash at Kenner outside of New Orleans. The municipal airport, still located in that suburb, was named in his honor. (UHSC.)
Arcadia
