Voisin VIII

The Voisin VIII was a French two-seat pusher biplane of the First World War, built as a night bomber, the LAP or Bn.2, and as a version carrying a 37 mm Hotchkiss cannon, the LBP or Ca.2. Voisin designed it as an interim type while the next bomber generation was developed, enlarging the Voisin VII for a bigger engine, with a steel tube structure, drum brakes on the rear wheels, jettisonable fuel tanks and tall exhaust stacks above the top wing. Its Peugeot 8Aa V8 engine proved unreliable, so by 1917 the aircraft were moved from the front line night bomber groups and replaced by the Voisin X, which was nearly identical apart from a Renault engine. Roughly 1,100 were built, and the type also served with French naval aviation and was trialled by the Royal Naval Air Service.