Voisin III

Voisin III
Role	Bomber
Manufacturer	Voisin
Designer	Gabriel Voisin
First flight	1914
Introduction	1914
Retired	before 1918
Primary user	Aéronautique Militaire
Number built	1,350+
Developed from	Voisin I

The Voisin III was a French two-seat bomber and ground attack aircraft of World War I, among the earliest of its kind. It is also notable for being the first aircraft in the war to win an aerial fight and shoot down an enemy aircraft.

It was a biplane with a single engine in a pusher configuration, developed by Voisin in 1914 as a more powerful version of the 1912 Voisin I design. It also incorporated a light steel frame which made it more durable when operating out of the temporary wartime military aviation airfields.

The first Voisin III was powered by a single 97-kilowatt (130 hp) Salmson M9 engine, later the 110-kilowatt (150 hp) P9 and R9. It had a range of 200 km (120 mi), top speed of 105–113 km/h (65–70 mph) and ceiling of 3,350–6,000 m (10,990–19,690 ft) (sources vary).

Earlier aircraft were armed with a Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun on the fuselage operated by a standing observer, and later models had 37 mm or 47 mm guns for ground attack. It could carry up to 55 kg (121 lb), 60 kg (130 lb) or 150 kg (330 lb) of bombs (sources vary).

Early in the war, the Voisin III became the most common Allied bomber. Significant numbers were purchased by the French Aéronautique Militaire and the Imperial Russian Air Force. Russia ordered more than 800 from France and built a further 400 under license at DUX in Moscow. Around 100 were built in Italy, and 50 in the United Kingdom, while smaller numbers were purchased by Belgium and Romania. One French aircraft was forced to land in Switzerland in 1915 after running low on fuel in combat with a German aircraft and was put into service with the Swiss Fliegerabteilung.

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