![]() ![]() Matilde Moisant & Harriet Quimby : Leaving Male Pilots on the GroundĪ full generation before Amelia Earhart, and less than a decade after the first flight of the Wright brothers, these women were running the same risks as men by taking primitive craft into the skies. Smithsonian Institution Negative #73-3564 Used with Permssion During World War I, she performed fundraising duties (on the ground) for the Red Cross. Moisant was pulled from the wreckage with her clothes afire but fortunately her heavy wool flying costume saved her from serious injury. It was almost her last performance of any kind as her aircraft burst into flames upon landing, due to a leak in the fuel tank. Then bowing to the wishes of her family, still recovering from the fatal crash of her brother John in 1910, Moisant scheduled her last flight for April 14, 1912, in Wichita Falls, Texas. Moisant flew in meets throughout the country and Mexico until the early spring of 1912, often flying at higher altitudes than most male pilots. ![]() She beat both Quimby and French pilot Helene Dutrieu. Moisant made her exhibition debut at the Nassau Boulevard Aviation Meet in September where she won the Rodman-Wanamaker altitude trophy by flying her 50 hp Moisant monoplane to an incredible 1,200 feet. Together the two pioneer female aviators and friends joined the Moisant International Aviators. Moisant learned to fly at her brother Albert's Moisant Aviation School on Long Island, along with aviator Harriet Quimby, and earned her license on August 13, 1911. Matilde Moisant was the second woman in the United States to receive a pilot's license. ![]() Text excerpt and Image used with permissionĬopyright © 2000 National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution ![]()
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