| Industry | Aerospace |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1905 |
| Fate | dissolved |
| Successor | Avions Voisin |
| Headquarters | Billancourt, Paris, France |
Key people | Gabriel Voisin Maurice Colieux |
| Products | Aircraft |
Aéroplanes Voisin was a Frenchaircraft manufacturing company established in 1905 byGabriel Voisin and his brotherCharles, and was continued by Gabriel after Charles died in an automobile accident in 1912; the full official company name then becameSociété Anonyme des Aéroplanes G. Voisin[1][2][note 1] (English:Aeroplanes Voisinpublic limited company). DuringWorld War I, it was a major producer of military aircraft, notably theVoisin III. After the war Gabriel Voisin abandoned the aviation industry, and set up a company to design and produce luxury automobiles, calledAvions Voisin.
Gabriel Voisin had been employed byErnest Archdeacon to work on the construction of gliders and then entered into partnership withLouis Blériot, to form the companyAteliers d' Aviation Edouard Surcouf, Blériot et Voisin in 1905.[3] Following a disagreement, Gabriel Voisin bought out Blériot and on 5 November 1906 established theAppareils d'Aviation Les Frères Voisin with his brother Charles[3] (English:Flying Machines of Voisin Brothers). The company, based in theParisian suburb ofBillancourt, was the first commercial aircraft factory in the world.[4]It created Europe's first manned, heavier-than-air powered aircraft capable of a sustained (1 km), circular, controlled flight, including take-off and landing, theVoisin-Farman I. Having learned to fly with a Voisin, on 8 March 1910,[5]Raymonde de Laroche became the first woman to receive a pilot licence when theAéro-Club de France issued her licence #36.In South Africa, on 28 December 1909, French aviatorAlbert Kimmerling made the first manned, heavier-than-air powered flight in Africa in aVoisin 1907 biplane.[6]
Like many early aircraft companies, Voisin built machines to the designs of their customers which helped support their own experiments. The company's first customers were a M. Florencie,[7] who commissioned them to build anornithopter he had designed, andHenri Kapferer, for whom they built apusher biplane of their own design. The latter was underpowered, having a Buchet engine of only 20 hp (15 kW), and it failed to fly. However, Kapferer introduced them toLeon Delagrange, for whom they built a similar machine, powered by a 50 hp (37 kW)Antoinette engine. This was first successfully flown by Charles Voisin on 30 March 1907, achieving a straight-line flight of 60 m (200 ft).[8] In turn Delagrange introduced them toHenri Farman, who ordered an identical aircraft. These two aircraft are often referred to by their owners' names as theVoisin-Delagrange No.1[note 2] and theVoisin-Farman No.1,[note 3] and were the foundation of the company's success. On 13 January 1908 Farman used his aircraft to win the "Grand Prix de l'aviation" offered byErnest Archdeacon andHenry Deutsch de la Meurthe for the first closed-circuit flight of over a kilometer. Since theWright Brothers would provide no evidence of their own accomplishments, they were widely disbelieved at the time, so this was a major breakthrough in the conquest of the air, and brought Voisin many orders for similar aircraft. Around sixty would be built.
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Production of theVoisin IIIType LA andLAS increased with the outbreak of theFirst World War, with examples being built under licence in Italy by S.I.T., in Russia by Anatra, Breshnev-Moller, Dux Lebedev and Schetinin, and in the UK by Savages of King's Lynn,[10] with production exceeding 1,350 airframes. Examples would also be used by the Belgian and Romanian Air Services, and a few even survived the war to be used in Ukraine, and in Russia.[11] Soon after the outbreak of the First World War, it became apparent that the French aviation industry could not produce aircraft in sufficient numbers to meet military requirements. Manufacturers from various other fields became aviation subcontractors, and later license-builders as did many smaller aircraft manufacturers who had been unable to secure orders for their own designs. By 1918, Voisin was involved with the Voisin-Lafresnaye company, a major constructor of airframes, and the Voisin-Lefebvre company, a major builder of aircraft engines.
The Voisin III was followed by a small number of the 37mm cannon armedVoisin IVType LB andType LBS.[12] TheB in the factory designations indicate that the airframe was equipped with a cannon, although some had it removed in service.[13] TheS indicates that the engine was raised (surélevé) compared to the original installation.[14]
Three hundred of the improvedVoisin VType LAS aircraft followed.[15]
TheVoisin VIType LAS was a development of the V fitted with a 155 hp (116 kW) Salmson radial, of which only around 50 were built despite the improved performance as the basic type was considered to be obsolete.[16]
The largerType LC,Voisin VII, followed in 1916 with the engine cooling radiators moved to the nose, but was not a success as it was badly underpowered and only a hundred of these were built.[17]
Voisin built a largeTriplane powered by four 150 hp (110 kW)Salmson water-cooled aero-engines in 1915 with twin superimposed fuselage booms, however it attracted no orders, but its wings were reused in 1916 for theE.28 triplane bomber which was now powered by four 220 hp (160 kW) V8Hispano-Suiza 8B engines, which likewise failed to secure any orders.[18]
Also in 1915, Voisin built theType M in which the fuselage was below the lower wing, and the engine filled the gap between the wings, however neither it, nor the otherwise similar twin fuselageType O were successful.[19]
Following the Voisin VII came the more powerful, and more successfulVoisin VIIIType LAP andType LBP. This was the French army's main night bomber in 1916 and 1917, with over one thousand built.[20]
TheVoisin IX, orType LC (the designation was reused), was an unsuccessful lightened development of the VIII for a reconnaissance aeroplane, which lost out to theSalmson 2 andBreguet 14.[21]
TheVoisin X,Type LAR andType LBR, was the Voisin VIII with a more reliable, lighter and more powerful 280 hp (210 kW)Renault 12Fe engine in place of the 220 hp (160 kW)Peugeot 8Aa used on the VIII. Deliveries were severely delayed, but some nine hundred were built before the end of the war. In 1918, a Voisin X (No. 3500) was used to create the Voisin 'Aerochir' ('Ambulance'). The aircraft was capable of flying a surgeon, together with an operating table and support equipment, including anx-ray machine andautoclave, into the battlefield. Under-wingpanniers could be carry 800 lb (360 kg) of equipment.[22] Another X was converted into a drone, and flown in 1918 and again in 1923.
TheVoisin XI was a development of the X powered by a 350 hp (260 kW)Panhard 12Bc, with a slightly longer wingspan and assorted detail changes. Only about 10 were built and it did not see service.[23]
The final Voisin design, theVoisin XII, was successful in trials in 1918 for the BN2 bomber competition, but with the end of the war, no production was ordered. The Voisin XII was a large, four-engined biplane night bomber.[24] Several projects for heavy bombers for the next bomber specification (BN3/4) may have been based on the XII, but fitted with larger Salmson or Hispano-Suiza engines, but were not built.[25]
In the 1930s, a glider was built by a Louis Voisin, however he had no connection to Gabriel Voisin.
After 1918, Gabriel Voisin abandoned the aviation industry in favor of automobile construction under the nameAvions Voisin.
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