Aeroplanes Voisin

Aeroplanes Voisin was a French aircraft manufacturing company established in 1905 by Gabriel Voisin and his brother Charles. Gabriel continued it after Charles died in an automobile accident in 1912, when the full official company name became Societe Anonyme des Aeroplanes G. Voisin. Gabriel Voisin first partnered with Louis Bleriot in 1905, bought him out, and on 5 November 1906 established with Charles the firm Appareils d'Aviation Les Freres Voisin at Billancourt in the Paris suburbs, described as the first commercial aircraft factory in the world. The company built the Voisin-Farman I, Europe's first manned heavier-than-air powered aircraft capable of a sustained circular controlled flight, and its early customers included Leon Delagrange and Henri Farman. During World War I it was a major producer of military aircraft, notably the Voisin III, which was also built under licence in Italy, Russia and the United Kingdom, with production exceeding 1,350 airframes. After 1918 Gabriel Voisin abandoned the aviation industry for automobile construction under the name Avions Voisin. This entry is the aircraft maker that built the Voisin III.