Gabriel Voisin had been employed by Ernest Archdeacon to work on the construction of gliders and then entered into partnership with Louis Blériot, to form the company Ateliers d' Aviation Edouard Surcouf, Blériot et Voisin in 1905. Following a disagreement, Gabriel Voisin bought out Blériot and on 5 November 1906 established the Appareils d'Aviation Les Frères Voisin with his brother Charles . The company, based in the Parisian suburb of Billancourt, was the first commercial aircraft factory in the world. It created Europe's first manned, heavier-than-air powered aircraft capable of a sustained, circular, controlled flight, including take-off and landing, the Voisin-Farman I. Having learned to fly with a Voisin, on 8 March 1910, Raymonde de Laroche became the first woman to receive a pilot licence when the Aero-Club of France issued her licence #36 of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. In South Africa, on 28 December 1909, French aviator M. Albert Kimmerling made the first manned, heavier-than-air powered flight in Africa in a Voisin 1907 biplane. Like many early aircraft companies, Voisin built machines to the designs of their customers which helped support their own experiments. The company's first customers were a M. Florencie, who commissioned them to build an ornithopter he had designed, and Henri Kapferer, for whom they built a pusher biplane of their own design. The latter was underpowered, having a Buchet engine of only, and it failed to fly. However, Kapferer introduced them to Leon Delagrange, for whom they built a similar machine, powered by a Antoinette engine. This was first successfully flown by Charles Voisin on 30 March 1907, achieving a straight-line flight of. In turn Delagrange introduced them to Henri Farman, who ordered an identical aircraft. These two aircraft are often referred to by their owners' names as the Voisin-Delagrange No.1 and the Voisin-Farman No.1, and were the foundation of the company's success. On 13 January 1908 Farman used his aircraft to win the "Grand Prix de l'aviation" offered by Ernest Archdeacon and Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe for the first closed-circuit flight of over a kilometer. Since the Wright Brothers would provide no evidence of their own accomplishments, they were widely disbelieved at the time, so this was a major breakthrough in the conquest of the air, and brought Voisin many orders for similar aircraft. Around sixty would be built.
Production of the Voisin IIIType LA and LAS increased with the outbreak of the First World War, with examples being built under licence in Italy by S.I.T., in Russia by Anatra, Breshnev-Moller, Dux Lebedev and Schetinin, and in the UK by Savages of King's Lynn, with production exceeding 1,350 airframes. Examples would also be used by the Belgian and Romanian Air Services, and a few even survived the war to be used in the Ukraine, and in Russia. Soon after the outbreak of the First World War, it became apparent that the French aviation industry could not produce aircraft in sufficient numbers to meet military requirements. Manufacturers from various other fields became aviation subcontractors, and later license-builders as did many smaller aircraft manufacturers who had been unable to secure orders for their own designs. By 1918, Voisin was involved with the Voisin-Lafresnaye company, a major constructor of airframes, and the Voisin-Lefebvre company, a major builder of aircraft engines. The Voisin III was followed by a small number of the 37mm cannon armed Voisin IVType LB and Type LBS, and were the only wartime designs with staggered wings. The B in the factory designations indicate that the airframe was equipped with a cannon, although some had it removed in service. The S indicates that the engine was raised compared to the original installation. Three hundred of the improved Voisin VType LAS aircraft followed. The Voisin VIType LAS was a development of the V fitted with a Salmson radial, of which only around 50 were built despite the improved performance as the basic type was considered to be obsolete. The larger Type LC, Voisin VII, followed in 1916 with the engine cooling radiators moved to the nose, but was not a success as it was badly underpowered and only a hundred of these were built. Voisin built a large Triplane powered by four Salmson water-cooled aero-engines in 1915 with twin superimposed fuselage booms, however it attracted no orders, but its wings were reused in 1916 for the E.28 triplane bomber which was now powered by four V8 Hispano-Suiza 8B engines, which likewise failed to secure any orders. Also in 1915, Voisin built the Type M in which the fuselage was below the lower wing, and the engine filled the gap between the wings, however neither it, nor the otherwise similar twin fuselage Type O were successful. Following the Voisin VII came the more powerful, and more successful Voisin VIIIType LAP and Type LBP. This was the French army's main night bomber in 1916 and 1917, with over one thousand built. The Voisin IX, or Type LC, was an unsuccessful lightened development of the VIII for a reconnaissance aeroplane, which lost out to the Salmson 2 and Breguet 14. The Voisin X, Type LAR and Type LBR, was the Voisin VIII with a more reliable, lighter and more powerful Renault 12Fe engine in place of the Peugeot 8Aa used on the VIII. Deliveries were severely delayed, but some nine hundred were built before the end of the war. In 1918, a Voisin X was used to create the Voisin 'Aerochir'. The aircraft was capable of flying a surgeon, together with an operating table and support equipment, including an x-ray machine and autoclave, into the battlefield. Under-wing panniers could be carry of equipment. Another X was converted into a drone, and flown in 1918 and again in 1923. The Voisin XI was a development of the X powered by a Panhard 12Bc, with a slightly longer wingspan and assorted detail changes. Only about 10 were built and it did not see service. The final Voisin design, the Voisin XII, was successful in trials in 1918 for the BN2 bomber competition, but with the end of the war, no production was ordered. The Voisin XII was a large, four-engined biplane night bomber. Several projects for heavy bombers for the next bomber specification may have been based on the XII, but fitted with larger Salmson or Hispano-Suiza engines, but were not built. In the 1930s, a glider was built by a Louis Voisin, however he had no connection to Gabriel Voisin.
Post World War I
After 1918, Gabriel Voisin abandoned the aviation industry in favor of automobile construction under the name Avions Voisin.
