Ever wonder how Moisant Airport in Kenner got the name Moisant? Who was he? And why are the code letters MSY? It’s quite a story.
Born in Kankakee, Ill., in 1868 to French-Canadian parents, John Bevins Moisant was one of those glamorous, and swashbuckling Victorian adventurers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries about whom legends and movies are made. Yet, despite his international fame at the time, his name and story have practically faded into obscurity.
Moisant was a pioneer in early aviation, an engineer, aircraft designer, a sugar plantation owner, a revolutionary, and dreamer. A 2010 article in Smithsonian Magazine described him as famous as “the Wright boys – maybe more so, because the small, balding American was considered the world’s most daring aviator. His story appeared in comic books, his profile ran in women’s magazines, and scientific journals reported on his construction of an aluminum airplane” the world’s first.
As the story goes, in the late 1890s Moisant and his three brothers moved from California to El Salvador, bought a sugar plantation, and quickly ran afoul of the country’s infamous president, Fernando Figueroa, who accused the brothers of plotting a rebellion against him. He was probably right. After their two failed coup attempts on Figueroa, the president threatened to execute the brothers, that is, until President Teddy Roosevelt stepped in with his “big stick” diplomacy. Figueroa released the Moisants, and John, the future aviator, left the country.
Stories differ on how Moisant got interested in flying. One account has him living in Guatemala and reading a newspaper article about the growing interest in airplanes. Another said the president of Nicaragua encouraged Moisant to take up aviation. Regardless of which is true, in August 1909 Moisant was off to France where he enrolled in a flying school. He was a quick learner. By August 1910, among other daring flying feats, he became the first pilot to fly across the English Channel with a passenger.
“Moisant was lauded on both sides of the Channel,” continued the Smithsonian article. “The French newspaper France Patrie hailed his ‘energy, audacity and intrepidity.’ The British in particular were fascinated by the American aviator, a man with ‘eyes of agate,’ who was small in stature but big in heart.”
The following October, Moisant competed in the International Aviation Cup at New York’s Belmont Park and a couple of days later in the race from Belmont around the Statue of Liberty and back. He lost the first race but beat the French and British pilots in the second.
With his winnings, Moisant formed a traveling circus that performed thrilling shows across the country. In December 1910, he arrived in New Orleans to participate in the Michelin Cup competition with a $4,000 purse for the pilot who remained aloft the longest. On December 31, Moisant took off from City Park, executed a few daring air tricks for on-lookers and then headed out to an area north of Harahan. On the way his plane hit an air pocket and ejected Moisant. He fell head first to the ground. He died from a broken neck.
Shortly after his death, the owners of the land where the accident took place built a cattle stockyard and named it “Moisant Stock Yard” in his honor. They later sold the yard to the City of New Orleans. With the coming of World War II in 1941, the city turned the land over to the Army to construct an airbase to train combat pilots. After the war, the Feds returned the land and airbase to the city, which christened its new airport Moisant Field. In 1960 the name changed to New Orleans International Airport. And in 2001, the city changed it again to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. Yet, the airport’s international code letters remain MSY – Moisant Stock Yard.