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Wings, wheels and the impossible house
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Gabriel Voisin -- a man whose genius deserves to be wrested from obscurity and proclaimed from the highest towers, or at the very least, from this forum. For he was that 20th century rarity: a renaissance engineer. That is to say, he was a renaissance man whose métier was engineering, and the objects he set his mind to stand alone, above all others of their type. They were the pinnacle of refinement.

Gabriel Voisin was born in eastern France in 1880, and grew up near a factory belonging to his grandfather, who tutored young Gabriel in all things mechanical. At that time, the automobile industry was in its infancy; the first four-wheeled horseless carriage was built in 1893, and each was made by hand from start to finish, under fairly crude conditions. In 1899, at the age of 19, Gabriel Voisin built his first car. So although he was not the first to make an automobile, he was almost certainly the youngest by that time.



Young Gabriel had also designed and built his own rifle and steam boat by the time he was 19. He began to study to become an architect at L'École des Beaux-Arts, but his studies were soon derailed by a growing obsession with heavier-than-air flight. In 1898, with the assistance of his younger brother Charles, Gabriel began building the first in a series of gliders. Just 5 months after the Wright Brothers' "official first" flight at Kittyhawk, the 24 year-old Voisin made the first controlled, heavier-than-air flight in Europe.



Voisin considered the Wright’s “Flyer” to be a glider with an engine grafted onto it, rather than a true airplane. After all, the Flyer was dependent upon human assistance or a catapult to get off the ground, as well as requiring a sort of separate trolley and tracks upon which it rested while taking off, rather than having its own wheels. Furthermore, none of the Wright’s flights before 1908 were performed under the observation of objective authorities; merely the anecdotal statements of the Wrights and their eyewitnesses.

Voisin’s own first powered flight took place in 1907, and more closely resembled a proper airplane’s flight; taking off unaided, on its own wheels. Was Voisin the true inventor of the airplane? The matter can never be settled to everyone’s satisfaction and the history books have already been written, but clearly he considered his airplane to be the first of the type. And for whatever the Wrights achieved (and wing-warping seems to have been their most significant contribution), the 150,000 aircraft used in the Great War -- manned flight's first real test -- were unrelated to anything the Wrights made, whereas there’s a direct line between Voisin’s 1907 airplane and the early fighters and bombers of the '14-'18 War.

Within less than two years of the Wright’s first flight, while they were still wrangling with patents to try to control the global market, Gabriel and his younger brother Charles (with the co-operation of Louis Blériot) established the world's first aircraft factory -- Frères Voisin. Gabriel is on the right.



One early customer was Henry Houdini who, in 1910, purchased a Voisin biplane and became the first person to fly in Australia.



Voisin became known for innovation, and the Voisin factory supplied the Allies with military aircraft during the Great War. The Voisin III and its successor the Voisin V became the primary Allied bombers in the early years of the war, with about 1,100 manufactured. Unlike most aircraft of the time, they had sturdy steel frames which made them ideal for the rough-field take-offs and landings that most planes had to endure. The first aerial combat of WWI was between a French Voisin III and a German Aviatik; the Voisin shot down the Aviatik.



At the age of 29, Gabriel became the youngest recipient of the Légion d'Honneur. Naturally, being a genius, a famous contributor to the Allied victory and a successful entrepreneur, M. Voisin’s visibility and desirability to others became enhanced. A small but well-proportioned and handsome man, and a stylish, fastidious dresser, he was what might be called a "connoisseur of beautiful women", especially ballerinas. (Even later in life, he married a ballerina half his age.) He purchased a famous old mansion in Paris from which he entertained. In short, he embodied many of those characteristics for which there exists a stereotype of the French bon viveur and playboy. Unlike most playboys, Voisin was anything but idle.



As the War came to a close Gabriel, feeling both regret for the carnage caused by aircraft and, recognizing the fact that his airplanes would not be as much in-demand in peacetime, turned his attentions elsewhere. Sensing that soldiers returning to war-ravaged towns would need a modern and inexpensive type of housing, he created a the world's first prefabricated house, built in easily-handleable panels at his factory. The panels had an exterior skin of steel over plywood, plywood interior faces, and cork insulation between. It was offered in 3 floorplans of 400, 700 and 1,000 square feet, the smallest of which could be shipped anywhere in France on the back of a single truck. The modular house was not only far less expensive than traditional stick-built houses, but could be erected in just three days by the purchaser, rather than needing to hire a contractor. Voisin built a demonstration model of each size and put together a catalog with diagrams and photographs.





This threat to the monopoly of the construction industry so alarmed its representatives at the trade show where Voisin was displaying maquettes and photos, that they publicly declared such a house to be "impossible", and accused Voisin of trying to defraud gullible home buyers. Finding himself at loggerheads with a powerful industry, Gabriel changed his tack. Two of the three modular demonstration houses still exist, and are in remarkably sound condition, for being nearly 90 years old!



He designed and built an inflatable aircraft hangar intended for the military



--as well as a practical and efficient moped for the public.



But when the orders didn't pour in, he came to the conclusion that automobiles were the wave of the future. Of course, he turned out to be right. And so "Avions Voisin" became the unlikely name for his new automobile company. And in keeping with his rationalism, cars were to be named by a simple consecutive numbering system, beginning with the "C1".

From the start, Gabriel insisted upon the highest standards, and approached each of his designs with his unconventional problem-solving. His engine of choice was a sleeve-valve powerplant which had the virtue of being nearly silent in operation. But the engine choice was merely the starting point for what was a life-long preoccupation for Voisin: extracting the maximum performance and efficiency out of the engine, relative to its weight and displacement. In this, he was unparalleled in his day.



Appropriate that the radiator fan should be more like an airplane propeller



Since Gabriel considered himself first an aircraft designer, it was only natural that he demand that automobiles also conform to that most important of ratios: weight versus power. There were many powerful automobiles already being produced; Duesenberg, Cadillac and Packard in the US all made extremely powerful cars – but at a cost in weight and handling. Americans subscribed to the notion that the only two things which mattered in a powerful car were straight-line acceleration and top speed. The fastest Duesenberg weighed 2-1/2 tons; Voisin’s most powerful car weighed less than half of that. This was not only important for fuel economy, it was vital to good handling around corners, and for braking performance. That Duesenberg probably took twice as far to come to a stop, compared to the Voisin, and would’ve been nearly impossible to handle at speed on a twisting road, where the Voisin excelled.

Drawing upon his aircraft experience, Voisin used sheet aluminum for bodies. Before World War Two, aluminum was scarce and expensive, which contributed to making Voisin cars among the most costly automobiles on the market. Also adapted from aircraft was the clever use of bracing to lend stiffness to parts like the front fenders. In a common, steel-bodied car, the fenders would be attached with many bolts to keep the heavy steel panels from bouncing or flexing. But with the external braces, Voisins could use lightweight aluminum for the bodywork and still retain the stiffness of heavy steel. The braces, as may be seen here between the radiator shell and the tops of the fenders, were not just rods or flat bars, but were machined into airfoil profiles for less wind-resistance.



Although the Voisins of the early-1920s were fairly conventional-looking, Gabriel constantly developed new ideas. An early experiment was this lovely sports car from 1922. Note that the central section looks as much like an aircraft fuselage as a car body. While most car bodies at the time were either fabric stretched over wood or steel in heavy stamped panels, Voisin's use of lightweight stressed aluminum panels allowed him to shape the bodies to suit the needs of the driver and occupant, rather than being confined to flat planes.





Then there was the aptly-named "Laboratoire", of one year later. Intended as a rolling test-bed for dozens of new ideas, Voisin built four of them for the all-important Grand Prix de Tours. They had the world's first monocoque automobile body (where the panels support each other rather than relying upon a separate frame), and the bodies were formed in an airfoil profile for aerodynamic efficiency and low drag. They also had remarkably highly developed engines. For displacing only 2,000 cc, they ultimately produced 150 horsepower, which propelled the cars to 120 mph – a speed almost unheard of in 1923. (As a comparison, the rival T. 32 Bugatti, with the same size of engine, only produced 90 hp., and the Super Sports Bentley with an engine half-again as large, could only manage 100 mph.)

Although Voisin had been developing the chassis and engine for more than a year, he discovered just one week before the race that his bodies were declared “unfair” by the governing body; no one had ever entered lightweight, aerodynamic-bodied racers before, and the judges had no intention of allowing these newfangled contraptions to compete with "proper" racers. They gave him the choice of using traditional bodies, or withdrawing. Voisin refused to do either, and instead entered them in “production car” category, which had no restrictions on body types, other than requiring roadgoing ancillaries (horn, lights, etc.) Entered thus, the Laboratoire still proved to be the fastest car by far in the race, although a mechanical failure forced its retirement after 250 miles.

While it would be difficult to describe the Laboratoires as "beautiful", it has the sort of pure machine aesthetic that is in a category of its own. One of the four was stolen and secretly passed on to Renault, who took it apart to try to discover what made it so fast. Sadly, none of them survived the years; however, an exact replica was recently constructed from Voisin’s blueprints.





To keep car height low, and thus cheat the wind as much as possible, Voisins were built on "under-slung" chassis, which placed the chassis rails (which determined the height of door sills and floors) below the axles. This was not only aerodynamically advantageous, it coincidentally gave Voisins a more rakish look. "Beautiful" certainly applies to these Voisins of the same period.





Voisin was notorious for his intolerance of noise, which he considered to be the greatest assault on human senses. His sleeve-valve engines may have been nearly silent while idling, but most cars of the time also used noisy Bendix-patent electric starters, the grinding from which offended his ears. He designed and made his own, superior starter – the “DynaStart” – which cranked the engine over smoothly and quietly. It is visible on most of his cars, in the center of the front, below the radiator. Voisin also designed and built the world’s first hydraulic brakes, the first hydraulic clutch and first hydraulic suspension.



Voisin also designed and built the first V-12 automobile engines in France. While a number of American cars were already using this configuration, Voisin started with a blank sheet of paper and produced a much more efficient, higher-performing version. In 1934, engineers from Rolls-Royce expressed interest in Voisin’s superior example of the type, and with typical sporting character, he gave them full access to his papers. This was typical of Gabriel who, despite having more than 100 patents to his name, refused to patent many of his inventions, considering them to be too much in the public’s interest to protect from copying. In 1936, Rolls-Royce produced their own V-12 for their “Phantom III”; clearly, they had benefited from studying the Voisin.



A Voisin was the auto of choice when one wanted to show off not only ones means for being able to afford such an expensive vehicle, but also to demonstrate ones intellect, sophistication and individuality. H.G. Wells was a customer, as were Josephine Baker, Maurice Chevalier, Anatole France and Raimu. François Mitterand owned no less than four Voisins, and Rudolph Valentino was sufficiently impressed to order two and have them shipped from Paris to Hollywood, since there were no distributors in America. This photo shows Mrs. Valentino in the back of one Voisin, and Rudolph behind the wheel of the other.



One early champion of Voisin autos was Gabriel's friend, the French architect Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris (more commonly known as "Le Corbusier"). In fact, so enamored was Jeanneret-Gris with Voisin's advanced engineering and rationalist design philosophy that not only did he own a series of Voisin automobiles, but his seminal Villa Savoie was designed around the turning radius of his Voisin sedan; the first house designed with a carport. Jeanneret-Gris also designed the door handles and other trim pieces for his friend Voisin.



Most high-end car manufacturers of the time produced a basic body, but customers often preferred to have custom bodies made by specialty coachbuilders. But since Voisin used aluminum and in novel ways that were not only striking-looking but much lighter (and thus faster and more fuel-efficient) than heavy coach-built bodies, most customers preferred to keep the factory-built bodies. By the late-1920s, these had become very individualistic. This is a C14 Berline from 1928. Note the counter-intuitive overhang of the roofline -- almost a top-hat effect. And in place of the usual side-mounted spare tires, Voisin mounted custom aluminum removable luggage cases on the running-boards. This helped balance the weight of the car more evenly on the front and rear axles.






The "top-hat" effect is taken even further by this astoundingly long and low C20 demi-berline of 1929. Note the absence of running-boards.




Also notice the interior of the car, which looks more like a racing plane than a car of the day. This was no affectation; the car may have been luxurious, but it was also a speed enthusiast’s machine.




And always, Gabriel pushed the performance boundaries, designing and building race cars and record-breakers, such as this example from 1929, which set many speed, endurance and efficiency records.





Although body styles evolved over the years, one thing remained a constant: Voisin's "Cocotte" mascot graced every radiator cap. It looked as if it might've been a Futurist sculpture by Boccioni, and it perfectly encapsulated the cars it graced. In an era where radiator mascots were often made of silver- or gold-plated bronze, or of glass, Voisin stayed true to form with one machined out of solid aluminum. In fact, although Voisin sketched the mascot up in a few minutes upon the request of a client (based upon an ancient Egyptian figure of a winged Isis), he abhorred the mounting of mascots, which he considered to be useless adornments. They would hardly pass federal safety regulations nowadays!



In keeping with the Egyptian motif of the Cocotte was the enameled badge, based upon a scarab beetle.



The stock market crash and worldwide Depression that followed hit Voisin hard. In 1928, there were literally dozens of luxury carmakers catering to the whims of aristocrats and the nouveau riche. One by one, they folded as the 1930s crept onward. Voisin refused to compromise. Instead, he made his cars all the more individualistic, and kept pushing boundaries.

This wicker-bodied C14 from 1932 almost mocks the idea of both the Depression and of conspicuous status. The only other wicker car of the time was the Hanomag Korbwagen, which used the material because it could be inexpensively produced. The Voisin uses wicker as if making a car just for going on picnics.




As the global economy faltered and war loomed in Europe, Voisin created some of the most singular and striking cars of the era. The C27 "Ski Coupé" was a watershed of Art Deco styling. Even the interior fabric was designed by Gabriel Voisin. Look at how the roof literally slides back out of the way, leaving no framing at the top of the windshield, for an un-obscured view of the road and sky. Note the shape of the window sills -- intended for comfort when resting one's arm on while driving; a door as arm-rest.





Note the matching tool case in the trunk!



An even more advanced car was the C25 Aerodyne -- a fast sedan with a sliding roof that included porthole skylights!






There were other gems to come out of the factory. This C28 Ambassade is certainly an imposing car, looking as if it were machined out of an immense block of Bakelite.




It looked just as good in 2-tone green



But surely the swan song for Voisin was the fabulous C28 Aerosport of 1935; the last car that Gabriel designed in toto. This was the first passenger car to ever use the "pontoon" body-type, where the front fenders blend directly into the sides of the car. Until well after World War Two, most carmakers clung to the separate fender design, with its added weight and complexity, and poorer aerodynamics. Due to the Aerosport's clean shape, wide use of aluminum and refined mechanicals, it could easily top 100mph. Four were made; one survives.





A few customers preferred to have their Voisins dressed by their favorite carossiers, as with this C28 with coachwork by Saliot. I don't prefer the more bulbous lines, but at least the coachbuilder respected Voisin's aesthetic enough to keep the details clean. And for being built in 1935, it looks remarkably like the Jaguar XK120 of thirteen years later.



In 1938, Dubos bodied this C30. Again, not to my taste; it's still a handsome car.




I can't say that I approve of the color scheme of this C27, bodied by Figoni for the Shah of Persia. It manages to look more generic and old-fashioned than the factory-bodied Voisins.



Such extravagance could not, of course, help a luxury car maker survive the Depression, and the end was in sight. In 1939, the financial strain finally broke the company, and it was taken over by creditors who used it for much more mundane manufacturing. The next year, the Nazis invaded, and used the factory for their war effort. Voisin was retained as a technical adviser, but did as little work for the occupiers as possible, which helped expedite him through the "denazification" process after the war. Unfortunately, being exonerated wasn't the same as getting his factory back.

Broke and in his late-60s, Voisin seemed to have few prospects. Creditors took the Parisian mansion, and the government gave his factory to the Gnome-Rhone concern. In his heyday, Voisin had given a poor young woman whom he admired a country cottage in Tournus. By now, her fortunes had turned around and she no longer needed the cottage; she offered it to Voisin, and he gratefully accepted. There, in an outbuilding, he started his own research laboratory, and let his imagination roam free. He had little money and the young people whom he hired were glad for the opportunity to work with a man of his stature, but it was difficult to pay them any wages.

Still fascinated by the possibilities of cars designed on a clean sheet of paper (rather than just following the slowly evolving lines that most carmakers did in practice), Voisin staged a second act. In 1950, at the age of 70, he introduced a car as far as one could get from his pre-war luxury models. This was his "minimal car", designed as if it were simply a pair of motorscooters side-by-side, with a seat between them, and some protection from the elements. He called it the "Bi-scooter", and he had been working on it in his head and in sketches since 1919, when he made his first prototype, with a 500cc engine.



If the design brief for Citroen's immortal 2cv was "an umbrella and four wheels", the Biscooter made the 2cv look like a limousine in comparison. Tiny wheels, a 200cc scooter engine, no doors or windows, no reverse gear -- and an ultra-lightweight aluminum body.



From engineering and economical standpoints, it was a thing of beauty. Aesthetically it was no more offensive than the 2cv, but it was never intended to win a concours d'elegance; it was intended to put war-ravaged Europe back on wheels. It cost little more than a scooter at a time when that was all most people could afford. But despite the Biscooter's virtues, Voisin was unable to attract sufficient investment to put it into production. Finally, in 1953, the Spanish company Autonacional contracted for a Biscooter concession, although they changed its name to “Biscuter”. It was a surprising, if modest, success, and some 40,000 of them were built over the course of almost ten years, in a variety of bodies. The standard Biscuter was similar to the 1950 and 1952prototypes:




the production version:





Compare the size of the Biscuter to that of a Voisin from the 1920s, which was already lower than most cars of its day:



Biscuters were also made in a number of variants, including a commercial wagon



...a "Furgoneta", with a larger cargo area



a "sports" version called the "Pegasin" (the body was not designed by Gabriel Voisin)



...and a very odd, angular little sedan that never made it past the prototype stage.



Sadly for Gabriel Voisin, building an ultra-economy car wasn't as profitable as building high-end, high-performance cars. Although it was gratifying to succeed in producing his minimal car and contributing to getting Spain back on wheels, the profits it provided were barely enough for him to get by on. In the meantime, he was never idle. He designed a lightweight microcar for the French Air Force that could be parachuted from a cargo plane.





It too, died a prototype. He designed a supersonic passenger jet -- a sort of Concorde -- long before the Concorde project was ever begun. No one wanted to build it. Finally, he realized that his era was past. Closing his workshop, he wrote his memoirs in two volumes, which he titled "My 10,000 Kites" and “My 1001 Autos”; the first volume was translated into English as “Men, Women and 10,000 Kites”.



Much to Gabriel's surprise, when he was 85, the French government informed him that he was to be made a Commander of the Legion of Honor. The recognition must've been bittersweet. With only a small pension to live on, Gabriel Voisin continued on until 1973, when he died in poverty and obscurity, at 93 years old.

Of the 40,000 Biscuters, most were consigned to the scrapheap as soon as the Spanish economy recovered enough to make owning a full-sized car a possibility. They're now highly sought after by microcar collectors.

Avions Voisin built somewhere in the region of 11,000 automobiles in its 19 years of existence. Unfortunately, since aluminum was a material of vital strategic importance during World War Two and, since Voisins had aluminum bodies, most of them were destroyed; ironically, melted down to make military aircraft. Perhaps 200 Voisin automobiles still exist. Compared to many of its contemporaries such as Bugatti, Delage and Delahaye, Voisin is quite obscure; even most vintage car enthusiasts are unfamiliar with the marque. But among the cognoscenti, they are highly prized. In 2006, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance featured Voisin, and 7 of them attended; nearly all of them the last of their type. That's why something like this totally original Voisin, recently discovered in a barn, is such a remarkable thing.




Gabriel Voisin: genius, polymath, bon viveur, pioneering aviator, inventor of the prefabricated house, creator of the era’s most beautiful and high-performing cars – for which of these things is he best remembered? Sadly, the answer seems to be “none”. It should not be so.