Voisin L

The Voisin L was a pusher biplane developed for the French Army's 1912 trials where it performed successfully. About 70 were built in France with a small number manufactured under license in the Russian Empire. The aircraft was the first in a series of military pusher biplanes from Voisin all of which had similar design characteristics.

Design
The Voisin L had equal-span wings with no dihedral. A cruciform tail was attached to the wings with booms. A streamlined nacelle carried a pilot and observer in front with a single rotary engine at the rear. Steel tubing was used throughout the structure making the Voisin-L a robust aircraft for its time-period.



Land-based versions of the aircraft featured a distinctive quadricycle landing gear. A floatplane version was produced with the quadricycle landing gear replaced with three flat bottomed pontoons.

Voisin-Ls can be identified as they used air-cooled rotary engines and so lacked the bulky radiators seen on later Voisin pushers which were powered by water-cooled Salmson 9, Peugeot 8Aa and Renault 12Fe aero-engines.

Operational history
At the start of World War I, Voisin L aircraft (types 1 and 2) were in service with four French squadrons. The aircraft were used for artillery observation and as daylight bombers. Voisin-Ls were in front line service till 1915 when the French airforce was reorganised with production focused on a smaller number of dedicated types. One of the types selected for mass production was the Voisin III.

In the Russian Empire, Voisin L aircraft were manufactured by Anatra, an Odesa based company who produced licensed versions of a number of French aircraft including the Voisin III. Voisin L aircraft remained in front line service into 1916.

Variants
Type 1 and 2 are designations applied retrospectively. Contemporary names for the aircraft included the Voisin model 1912 and Voisin 13.5 meter. In all cases Voisin L was the aircraft's factory designation.
 * Type 1 or Voisin I - Fitted with the Rhône 9C
 * Type 2 or Voisin II - Fitted with Gnome rotary engines. Some later examples used the seven-cylinder variant of the Gnome Monosoupape.

Operators

 * French Third Republic
 * French Air Force
 * French Navy
 * Imperial Russian Air Service
 * Imperial Russian Air Service