Avions Voisin

Gabriel B. Voisin was an aviation pioneer and manufacturer who in 1919 started producing cars using Knight-type sleeve valve engines at Issy-les-Moulineaux, an industrial suburb to the southwest of Paris.

Former student of the Fine Arts School of Lyon and enthusiast for all things mechanical since his childhood, Voisin's designs made extensive use of light alloys, especially aluminum. One of the company's early designs was the Voisin Laboratoire Grand Prix car of 1923; one of the first cars ever to use monocoque chassis construction, and utilising small radiator-mounted propeller to drive the cooling pump. He developed the characteristic Voisin style of 'rational' coachwork in conjunction with his collaborator André Noel. Noel prioritized lightness, central weight distribution, capacious luggage boxes and distinctively angular lines. The 1930s models with underslung chassis were strikingly low.

In the early 1930s, Gabriel Voisin could not pay all of his draughtsmen anymore and a young creative engineer named André Lefèbvre quit, recommended by Gabriel to Louis Renault. Lefèbvre finally entered Citroën where he led three particularly significant car projects: the Traction Avant, the 2CV and the DS, using a lot of Gabriel's lessons.