Avions Voisin

Avions Voisin was a French luxury automobile marque that the aviation pioneer Gabriel Voisin established in 1919 and that traded until 1939. Voisin began building cars at Issy-les-Moulineaux, an industrial suburb southwest of Paris, using Knight-type sleeve valve engines, and the marque stayed with sleeve valve engines almost exclusively until some later models took Graham 3.5 litre units. Its cars made wide use of light alloys, especially aluminium, and carried the angular, lightweight "rational" coachwork Voisin developed with his collaborator Andre Noel. The 1923 Voisin Laboratoire Grand Prix car was among the first to use monocoque chassis construction. After the Second World War the business was nationalised and absorbed into its creditor Gnome et Rhone, and the 1950 Biscooter Voisin voiturette was the last echo of the name, later built under licence in Spain as the Biscuter.