1. Gabriel Voisin was born on 5 February 1880 in Belleville-sur-Saone, France, and his brother Charles Voisin, two years younger than him, was his main childhood companion.
17 Facts About Gabriel Voisin
1. 2.
When his grandfather died, Gabriel was sent to school in Lyon and Paris, where he learned industrial design, a field Voisin claims to have been exceptionally gifted.
3.
Gabriel Voisin often returned home, and by the end of the century, the brothers had built, among other things, a rifle, a steamboat, and an automobile.
4.
Archdeacon then commissioned Gabriel Voisin to build another glider of similar design, but differing in having a fixed horizontal stabiliser behind the wings and its front-mounted elevator.
5.
Gabriel Voisin then designed and built a glider equipped with floats for the Archdeacon.
6.
Gabriel Voisin attempted flights in both aircraft on 18 July 1905.
7.
Gabriel Voisin made a short flight in his glider and then tried a flight in Bleriot's.
8.
Gabriel Voisin was trapped inside and was lucky to escape drowning.
9.
Appareils d'Aviation Les Freres Gabriel Voisin was the world's first commercial airplane factory.
10.
In 1909, Gabriel Voisin was made a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, and along with Bleriot was awarded the Prix Osiris, awarded by the Institut de France.
11.
Gabriel Voisin eventually ended his cooperation with the Voisin brothers, following a disagreement, and started manufacturing his own designs, which became very successful.
12.
The Gabriel Voisin brothers continued the expansion of their factory, resulting, for example, in the Canard Gabriel Voisin of 1911.
13.
Gabriel Voisin was greatly affected by the death of his brother Charles in 1912 in an automobile accident near Belleville-sur-Saone.
14.
When World War I broke out in 1914, Gabriel Voisin immediately volunteered for service with the French Air Corps.
15.
The Gabriel Voisin III was built in large numbers between 1914 and 1916 and sold not only to the French air services but to other allies, including Russia.
16.
Gabriel Voisin abandoned aviation, citing the trauma of the military use of his more advanced airplanes during the war in addition to the then embryonic demand for civilian aircraft.
17.
Gabriel Voisin died on Christmas Day, 25 December 1973, in Ozenay, Saone-et-Loire at the age of 93.