John Bevins Moisant (April 25, 1868 – December 31, 1910) was an American aviator, aeronautical engineer, flight instructor, businessman, and revolutionary.

[5][6][7] Moisant funded his aviation career with proceeds from business ventures in El Salvador, where he had led two failed revolutions and coup attempts against President Figueroa in 1907 and 1909.

[8] Only months after becoming a pilot, Moisant died after being ejected from his airplane over a field just west of New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was competing for the 1910 Michelin Cup.

The site of his crash is the location of Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, which was originally named Moisant Field in his memory.

[10] He and his brothers moved to El Salvador in 1896 and bought sugarcane plantations that generated a substantial sum for the family.

[citation needed] 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.

[23] At the International Aviation Meet at Belmont Park, New York, John Moisant flew his Blériot XI around a marker balloon 10 miles (16 kilometers) away, and returned to the racetrack in only 39 minutes, winning an $850 prize.

After this initial competition, Moisant collided his brake-less Blériot into another aircraft while both were taxiing, causing it to flip over, but had repairs completed in time for the next event.

[34] While attempting to land at an airfield in Harahan, located about four miles from the New Orleans city limits, Moisant was caught in a gust of wind and thrown from his Blériot XI monoplane in view of a crowd of spectators.

Apparently still alive, Moisant's body was hurriedly placed aboard a nearby railroad car and driven into the city, where he was then pronounced dead.

[34] The crash was later blamed on a "loss of equilibrium caused by an extra load of gasoline, placed aboard the plane for the endurance flight.

[37][38] Cessna would become one of the United States' first major advocates of monoplanes, carrying forward Moisant's support of the then-controversial concept.