The story
Founded by Charles Voisin and Gabriel Voisin in 1906.1
Early history
Gabriel Voisin had been employed by Ernest Archdeacon to work on the construction of gliders and then entered into a partnership with Louis Blériot, to form the company Ateliers d' Aviation Edouard Surcouf, Blériot et Voisin in 1905. Following a disagreement, Gabriel Voisin bought out Blériot and on 5 November 1906 established with his brother Charles the Appareils d'Aviation Les Frères Voisin (English: Flying Machines of Voisin Brothers). The company, based in the Parisian suburb of Billancourt, was the first commercial aircraft factory in the world.
It created the Voisin-Farman I, Europe's first manned, heavier-than-air powered aircraft capable of a sustained (1 km), circular, controlled flight, including take-off and landing.
Having learned to fly with a Voisin, on 8 March 1910, Raymonde de Laroche became the first woman to receive a pilot's licence when the Aéro-Club de France issued her licence #36.
In South Africa, on 28 December 1909, French aviator Albert Kimmerling made the first manned, heavier-than-air powered flight in Africa in a Voisin 1907 biplane.
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 M. Florencie, who commissioned them to build an ornithopter he had designed, and Henri Kapferer, for whom they built a pusher 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 to Leon 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). In turn Delagrange introduced them to Henri Farman, who ordered an identical aircraft. These two aircraft are often referred to by their owners' names as the Voisin-Delagrange No.1 and the Voisin-Farman No.1, 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 by Ernest Archdeacon and Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe for the first closed-circuit flight of over a kilometer. Since the Wright 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.
Major Designs of 1907-1914
1907 Voisin 1907 biplane
1909 Voisin Tractor
Only one built.
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1910 Voisin Type de Course
1910 Type Bordeaux
1910 Voisin Type Militaire
1911 Type de Tourism
1911 Voisin Canard
Tail first pusher design initially flown as a landplane but later fitted with floats. Examples were sold to the French and Russia Navies.
1912 Type Monaco
Smaller version of the Canard floatplane. Two were built to take part in the 1912 Monaco Aero Meeting.
1912 Voisin Icare Aero-Yacht
Flying boat built for Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe with a six-wheeled boat hull suspended below the wings.
1912 Voisin Type L or Voisin Type I & II
A pod and boom pusher biplane developed for the French Army's 1912 trials where it performed successfully. Some seventy were built in France along with around 400 in the Russian Empire.
1913 Voisin Canon
Six wheeled triple tailed pod and boom pusher armed with a 37mm Hotchkiss cannon
1914 Type LA or Voisin III
Development of the L with detail improvements but of the same general configuration.
From Wikipedia’s article on Voisin (aircraft), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3