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Gabriel Voisin
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Gabriel Voisin (February 5, 1880 – December 25, 1973) was a French aviation pioneer.
as born at Belleville-sur-Saône, France, and his brother Charles, two years younger than he, was his best friend. When his father abandoned the family, his mother, Amélie, took her sons home to Neuville-sur-Saône, where they settled near her father's factory.
Their grandfather, Charles Forestier, took charge of the boys' education with military rigor.
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Encyclopedia
Gabriel Voisin (February 5, 1880 – December 25, 1973) was a French aviation pioneer.
Biography
He was born at Belleville-sur-Saône, France, and his brother Charles, two years younger than he, was his best friend. When his father abandoned the family, his mother, Amélie, took her sons home to Neuville-sur-Saône, where they settled near her father's factory.
Their grandfather, Charles Forestier, took charge of the boys' education with military rigor. The boys also went for expeditions along the river, went fishing, and built numerous contraptions. When his grandfather died, Gabriel was sent to school in Lyon and Paris where he learned industrial design, a field in which he was exceptionally gifted. However, he often returned home, and by the end of the century, the brothers had built, among other things, a rifle, a steam boat, a glider, and an automobile.
First experiments
In 1900, Gabriel was hired as a designer for the Universal Exposition in Paris. There, he met Clément Ader, who fueled his interest in aeronautics.
In June 1905, Gabriel Voisin tested a glider he had equipped with floats by having it towed by a fast boat on the Seine river . Motion picture footage of this experiment survives in the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum. The glider's wing configuration was made up of Hargrave cells, a box-kite-like structure that allowed for great lift and structural strength with minimal weight. Financing of this early glider had been provided in large part by a wealthy Parisian enthusiast: Ernest Archdeacon. Gabriel Voisin was towed into the air by the motor boat "La Rapiere" and flew for a distance of 600 metres (1800 ft) and at a height of about 20 metres (60 ft) above the river. When the glider went down, Voisin became entangled in its wiring and nearly drowned.
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