Early aeronautical engineering John Moisant entered the aviation field in 1909 as a hobby, after attending the
Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne air show in
Reims,
France in August 1909. He designed and built two aircraft between August 1909 and 1910, before he became an officially licensed pilot. His first was the
Moisant Biplane, alternatively known as "L'Ecrevisse", which he had built in
Issy-les-Moulineaux,
Paris,
France. This experimental aircraft constructed entirely from
aluminum and
steel by workers hired by Moisant from
Clément-Bayard was the first all-
metal aircraft in the world. This aircraft was completed in February 1910; the Moisant biplane's inaugural flight, and Moisant's first flight, ultimately resulted in a crash after ascending only 90 feet with limited airtime. Moisant's second project, begun in January 1910, resulted in the
Moisant Monoplane, alternatively known as "Le Corbeau", which was partially built out of the wreckage of L'Ecrevisse. The alternative design had difficulty staying upright on the ground and was never flown.
Training in France In the spring of 1910, Moisant took four flying lessons at the Blériot School, headed by
Louis Blériot, in
Pau,
Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France, beginning his short but distinguished flying career. Later, Moisant was granted a pilot's license from the
Aéro-Club de France, which he transferred to the
Aero Club of America to become the thirteenth registered pilot in the United States.
Significant flights and aviation records On August 9, 1910, Moisant flew his third flight as a pilot in his first recently purchased Blériot XI from
Étampes to Issy-les-Moulineaux over
Paris, landing the aircraft at the starting line of the
Le Circuit de l'Est aerial time trial circuit. Accompanying Moisant as a passenger on the flight was his mechanic, making the trip the first passenger flight over a city in the world. That same day, he followed this performance with an encore, flying over Paris again with
Roland Garros, who would become a future member of the Moisant International Aviators flying circus, as his passenger. On October 30, 1910, at the same show, he competed in a race to fly around the
Statue of Liberty. He won the race, beating
Claude Grahame-White, a British aviator, by 42.75 seconds. However, he was later disqualified because officials ruled that he had started late. The $10,000 prize later went to
Count Jacques de Lesseps not Grahame-White, because the latter had fouled during the race. On December 30, 1910, in
New Orleans, he raced his Blériot XI five miles (eight kilometers) against a
Packard automobile, but lost. Initially, John Moisant was one of the pilots in the exhibitions, along with
Charles K. Hamilton,
Rene Simon, Rene Barrier, J.J. Frisbie, C. Audemars, and
Roland Garros. ==Death==