On the morning of October, 5, 1914, French Sergeant pilot Joseph Frantz and mechanic Corporal Quenault in their Voisin biplane spotted a German Aviatik flying at about 3500 ft. He closed on until Quenault found the range and opened fire with a light machine gun. The Aviatik dove away, but Frantz followed, Quenault firing intermittently. The Voisin overshot the quarry; the Aviatik pilot banked and tried to run; Franz reversed and got behind him.
In 1911, MM. Voisin Freres experimented with a biplane characterized by the absence of a tail and the grouping of the elevation and direction rudders at the front, carried by a long central fuselage. This fuselage was attached at the rear to the main biplane cell. But airplane design moved quite the other way, as designers found that a tail unit including both elevator and rudder was the best concept. Continue reading
The original Voisin type was soon replaced by the type “Bordeaux,” quite different from the original in controls and structure. There were several innovations on this machine, notably the Gnome rotary engine of 11 cylinders set like the spokes of a wheel. Continue reading
This machine, built by the Voisins and first experimented with in the late part of l909, embodied several unorthodox biplane features, but had little success. The Goupy and the Breguet, aeroplanes of this type, however, turned out to be much more practical. Continue reading
In 1906-07, the Voisin brothers had designed and built a pusher biplane, powered by an Antoinette V-8 engine, that took off on wheels and flew reasonably well. Purchased and modified by French aviation pioneer Henri Farman, a Voisin biplane, in January 1908, became the first airplane in Europe to fly a one kilometer circuit. Later in 1908, he toured extensively with his aeroplane, including a trip to New York in July. Continue reading
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Charles and Gabriel Voisin were France’s answer to the Wright Brothers. In 1904, they established a factory for the production of gliders and experimental machines, designing primitive biplanes in 1906. Having constructed a power machine for Leon Delagrange, Charles Voisin made his first power flight in it, a short hop of 10 meters, at Bagatelle on March 16, 1907. The machine was a biplane pusher, biplane elevator forward on outriggers, box tail aft on outriggers, rudder inside tail and Antoinette 50 h.p. engine. Over the next two months, the machine flew distances of 20m, 60m, 50, and 34m. It was delivered to Delagrange in April(?), but he did not fly it until later. Continue reading