Matilde Moisant
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_and_Harriet_Quimby_(right)_Circa_1911-1912.jpg){kind=link}
Matilde Josephine Moisant (September 13, 1878 – February 5, 1964) was an American pioneer aviator, the second woman in the United States to obtain a pilot's license.<ref name=obit>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Early lifeEdit
Moisant was born on September 13, 1878, in Earl Park, Indiana,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn to Médore Moisant and Joséphine Fortier.Template:Sfn Both parents were French Canadians.Template:Sfn Her siblings include George, John, Annie M.,Template:Sfn Alfred Moisant,Template:Sfn Louise J.Template:Sfn and Eunice Moisant.Template:Citation needed John and Alfred were also aviators.<ref name="Airandspace.si.edu">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1880, the family was living in Manteno, Illinois, and her father was working as a farmer.Template:Sfn<ref name="1880 Census">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
CareerEdit
Moisant learned to fly at Alfred's Moisant Aviation School on Long Island, New York.<ref name="Airandspace.si.edu"/> On August 13, 1911,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Erisman 2009 p. ">Template:Cite book</ref> a few weeks after her friend Harriet Quimby received her pilot's certificate, Matilde Moisant became the second woman pilot certified by the Aero Club of America. She pursued a career in exhibition flying, known as barn storming.<ref name="Airandspace.si.edu"/> In September 1911, she flew in the air show at Nassau Boulevard airfield in Garden City, New York and, while competing against Hélène Dutrieu, Moisant broke the women's altitude world record and won the Rodman-Wanamaker trophy by flying to Template:Convert.<ref name="Airandspace.si.edu"/>
RetirementEdit
Moisant stopped flying on April 14, 1912, in Wichita Falls, Texas when her plane crashed<ref name="Airandspace.si.edu"/> (the same day that the Titanic struck an iceberg and only two days before her friend, Harriet Quimby, became the first woman to pilot an aircraft across the English Channel).Template:Sfn A few months later on July 1, 1912, Quimby was killed when she was thrown from her plane.Template:Sfn Although Moisant recovered from her injuries, she gave up flying. During World War I she volunteered at the front in France.<ref>Photo caption, The Rubber Age and Tire News (September 25, 1917): 20.</ref> She spent several years dividing her time between the U.S. and the family plantation in El Salvador, before returning to the Los Angeles area.Template:Sfn
DeathEdit
Matilde Moisant died in 1964 in Glendale, California,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> aged 85, and was interred in the Portal of Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery, North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.<ref name=obit/><ref name="Portal of the Folded Wings">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
TimelineEdit
- 1878 Birth in IndianaTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
- 1880 Living in Manteno, Kankakee, Illinois<ref name="1880 Census" />
- 1880 US Census in Manteno, Illinois
- 1900 US Census in California
- 1910 Death of her brother<ref name="Airandspace.si.edu"/>
- 1911 Received pilot's certificate<ref name="Airandspace.si.edu"/>
- 1911 Won Rodman-Wanamaker altitude trophy<ref name="Airandspace.si.edu"/>
- 1912 Crash in Texas on April 14<ref name="Airandspace.si.edu"/>
- 1920 Living in Los Angeles, California
- 1920 US Census in Los Angeles, California
- 1930 US Census in La Crescenta, California
- 1964 Death in California<ref name=obit/>
- 1964 Burial In Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery<ref name="Portal of the Folded Wings" />
ReferencesEdit
CitationsEdit
BibliographyEdit
Further readingEdit
- New York Times; May 11, 1911; p. 6; "Woman in trousers daring aviator. Long Island Folk Discover That Miss Harriet Quimby Is Making Flights at Garden City. Garden City, Long Island; May 10, 1911. Rumors that there was a young woman aviator at the Moisant Aviation School here who made daily flights at 4:30 A.M. have brought many Garden City folk and townspeople from Hempstead and Mineola to the flying grounds here on several mornings. These early risers have seen a slender, youthful figure in aviation jacket and trousers of wool-backed satin, with ..."
- New York Times; Oct 09, 1911; p. 1; "Escapes sheriff in her aeroplane; Matilde Moisant Takes to the Air Before He Can Arrest Her. Matilde Moisant, who became America's most notable woman flier after seeing her brother, the late John B. Moisant, make his celebrated flight around the Statue of Liberty, narrowly missed being thrown into jail yesterday in Nassau County for going into the air in her monoplane on Sunday."
- Oakes, C. M.: United States Women in Aviation Through World War I; Smithsonian Institution Press, 1978.
- Rich, D. L.: The Magnificent Moisants – Champions of Early Flight; Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998. Template:ISBN.