Matilde Moisant, American Aviatrix and WWI Volunteer

Moisant wearing a good luck swastika medallion. Matilde Josephine Moisant (September 13, 1878 E?? February 5, 1964) was an American pioneer aviator. 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. In September 1911, she flew in the air show at Nassau Boulevard airfield in Garden City, New York and, while competing against HcelC ne Dutrieu, Moisant broke the women's altitude world record and won the Rodman-Wanamaker trophy by flying to 1, 200 feet. She stopped flying on April 14, 1912 in Wichita Falls, Texas when her plane crashed (the same day that the Titanic struck an iceberg). Although Moisant recovered from her injuries, she gave up flying. During WWI she volunteered at the front in France. She spent several years dividing her time between the U.S. and the family plantation in El Salvador. She died in 1964 at the age of 85. No photographer credited, 1912

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Aviatrix Aviatrixes Josephine Matilde Moisant Volunteer

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