On New Year's Eve Moisant competed with four pilots for the $4,000 Michelin Prize to beat the sustained flight record
of 362.66 miles. He flew from City Park headed for the competition's start field in Harahan. After circling three times at
200 feet, wind shear at twenty-five feet caused the plane to crash as he attempted to land. Scientific American magazine
reported that he was the first aviator to be thrown from a plane in a. fatal accident. In 1946, the city named its new airport
in Kenner Moisant Field (now Louis Armstrong International). At the dedication ceremonies
aviator Jimmy Doolittle was present to unveil the monument which reads “In commemoration of a pioneer in aviation, who
lost his life in an airplane accident near this site December 31, 1910. He was the first pilot: to carry a passenger across
the English Channel, inventor of the early all-metal airplane, a man of lovable character whose tragic death was a great loss
to aviation”. Note that the date on this photograph – Moisant had also crashed in October, 1910 but escaped serious
injury. (LOC)
The images in this book appear courtesy of the New Orleans Public Library (NOPL), Louisiana Digital Library (LDL), the Library
of Congress (LOC), The Historic New Orleans Collection (HNOC), Pictometry International (PI), and D.C. "Infrogmation"
May (DCM). Unless otherwise noted, images are from the author's collection.
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book is dedicated to
Friends of City Park.