Voisin (aircraft)
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 French aircraft manufacturing company established in 1905 by Gabriel Voisin and his brother Charles, and was continued by Gabriel after Charles died in an automobile accident in 1912; the full official company name then became Société Anonyme des Aéroplanes G. Voisin[1][2][note 1] (English: Aeroplanes Voisin public limited company). During World War I, it was a major producer of military aircraft, notably the Voisin III. After the war Gabriel Voisin abandoned the aviation industry, and set up a company to design and produce luxury automobiles, called Avions Voisin.
Early history
Gabriel Voisin had been employed by Ernest Archdeacon to work on the construction of gliders and then entered into partnership with Louis Blériot, to form the company Ateliers d' Aviation Edouard Surcouf, Blériot et Voisin in 1905.[3] Following a disagreement, Gabriel Voisin bought out Blériot and on 5 November 1906 established the Appareils d'Aviation Les Frères Voisin with his brother Charles [3] (English: Flying Machines of Voisin Brothers). The company, based in the Parisian suburb of Billancourt, 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, the
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,
Major Designs of 1907-1914
- 1907 Voisin 1907 biplane
- 1909 Voisin Tractor[9]
- Only one built.
- 1910 Voisin Type de Course
- 1910 Voisin Type Militaire
- 1910 Type Bordeaux
- 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.
- 1911 Type Tourism
- 1912 Type Monaco
- Smaller version of the Canard floatplane. Two were built to take part in the 1912 Monaco Aero Meeting.
- Flying boat built for Henry Deutsch de la Meurthewith a six-wheeled boat hull suspended below the wings.
- Flying boat built for
- A pod and boom pusher biplane developed for the French Army's 1912 trials. It performed successfully, and some seventy were built in France, and a small number in Russia
- 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.
Voisin designs in World War I
Production of the
The Voisin III was followed by a small number of the 37mm cannon armed Voisin IV Type LB and Type LBS.[12] The B in the factory designations indicate that the airframe was equipped with a cannon, although some had it removed in service.[13] The S indicates that the engine was raised (surélevé) compared to the original installation.[14]
Three hundred of the improved Voisin V Type LAS aircraft followed.[15]
The Voisin VI Type 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 larger Type 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 large Triplane 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 the E.28 triplane bomber which was now powered by four 220 hp (160 kW) V8 Hispano-Suiza 8B engines, which likewise failed to secure any orders.[18]
Also in 1915, Voisin built the Type 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 fuselage Type O were successful.[19]
Following the Voisin VII came the more powerful, and more successful Voisin VIII Type LAP and Type LBP. This was the French army's main night bomber in 1916 and 1917, with over one thousand built.[20]
The
The Voisin X, Type LAR and Type 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 an x-ray machine and autoclave, into the battlefield. Under-wing panniers 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.
The
The final Voisin design, the Voisin 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.
Post World War I
After 1918, Gabriel Voisin abandoned the aviation industry in favor of automobile construction under the name Avions Voisin.
Notes
- ^ Gunston, 1993, says the full name was "Aéroplanes G. Voisin". On the other hand the avions-voisin.org webpage specifies the name as "Société Aéroplanes Voisin, Société Anonyme".
- ^ marked on the side-curtains of the tail unit as Léon Delagrange No. 1
- ^ marked on the side-curtains of the tail unit as Henri Farman No. 1
References
- ISBN 0-8160-1844-8.
- ^ http://www.avions-voisin.org/public/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=12 [dead link]
- ^ ISBN 1-55750-939-5.
- ^ Davilla p. 541
- ISBN 978-1-57488-532-3. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
- ^ "1910 to 1920 - Early Flying in South Africa | South African Power Flying Association". Archived from the original on 2015-08-20. Retrieved 2015-06-18. 1910 to 1920 - Early Flying in South Africa
- ^ Opdycke 1999 p.263
- ^ Nouveaux Essais de l'Aéroplane Delagrangel'Aérophile , April 1907, p.105
- ^ The New Voisin Biplane. Flight, 11 December 1909 p. 799
- ^ Davilla pp.547-549
- ^ Davilla pp.547-550
- ^ Davilla pp.550-551
- ^ Davilla p.559
- ^ Davilla p.544
- ^ Davilla p.552
- ^ Davilla p.556
- ^ Davilla p.557
- ^ Davilla pp.552 & 557-558
- ^ Davilla p.570
- ^ Davilla pp.559-561
- ^ Davilla p.562
- ^ Stamford, Lincs., U.K.: FlyPast, Key Publishing Ltd, Flying Hospital, April 2007 No. 309 p. 14
- ^ Davilla p.566
- ^ Davilla pp.567-568
- ^ Davilla p.569
Bibliography
- (in French) Carlier, Claude, Sera Maître du Monde, qui sera Maître de l'Air: La Création de l'Aviation militaire française. Paris: Economica/ISC, 2004. ISBN 2-7178-4918-1
- Davilla, James J., & Soltan, Arthur M., French Aircraft of the First World War. Stratford, Connecticut: Flying Machines Press, 1997. ISBN 0-9637110-4-0
- (in French) Lacaze, Henri, Les Aéroplanes Voisin, Collection Histoire de L'Aviation N°39. Paris:LELA PRESSE, 2018.
- ISBN 0-7643-0752-5
- Voisin, Gabriel, Mes 10,000 Cerfs-volants, Editions La Table Ronde, Paris, 1960.
- ( Italy ) Grassani, Enrico "Elisa Deroche alias Raymonde de Laroche. La presenza femminile negli anni pionieristici dell'aviazione" Editoriale Delfino, Milano 2015. ISBN 978-88-97323-46-4