Voisin X

The Voisin X, sometimes written Voisin 10, was a French two-seat pusher biplane of the First World War, built as a conventional night bomber (the LAR or X Bn.2) and as a version armed with a 37 mm Hotchkiss cannon (the LBR or X Ca.2). Problems with the Peugeot engine of the Voisin VIII led to a more powerful and reliable 210 kW (280 hp) Renault 12Fe V-12, and the aircraft was otherwise nearly identical to the VIII, with a robust steel-tube structure covered in aluminium sheet on the nacelle and doped fabric on the flying surfaces and, unusually for the period, drum brakes on the rear wheels. The first entered service with escadrille VB.114 in late 1917, and despite its obsolescence the type made up the bulk of front-line night bomber escadrilles until the end of the war. One became the Aerochir, a flying hospital with X-ray equipment, and in 1918 another flew 100 km under an automatic pilot built around Sperry gyroscopes.