One hundred years ago today, a devil-may-care pioneer pilot prepared for a routine landing in a Harahan field. According to century-old Times-Picayune reports, he was 200 feet from the ground ...

Moisant shrugged off the advice, saying, “I don’t expect to die in an airplane flight.” Moisant woke early on the morning of Saturday, December 31, in more of a frenzy of activity than usual.

Moisant won a contest flying around the Statue of Liberty. Then he set his sights on winning the 1910 Michelin Cup, which had a $4,000 prize for the aviator who made the longest flight that year.