what is it?
The Voisin III was a French World War I two-seat pusher biplane multi-purpose aircraft developed by Voisin in 1914 as a more powerful version of the 1912 Voisin L. It is notable for being the aircraft used for the first successful shooting down of an enemy aircraft on October 5, 1914, and to have been used to equip the first dedicated bomber units, in September 1914.
How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · biplane · 14.7 m wingspan
base stats
Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).
fun facts
- First flew 112 years ago, in 1914.
- Wingspan of 14.7 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1914
- introduced
- 1914
- retired
- 1918
- status
- retired
- number built
- 1,350
- role
- bomber
- makers
- Voisin
- engines
- 1× Salmson M.9 / Salmson water-cooled aircraft engine / Salmson M9
- crew
- 2
- passengers
- 2
- length
- 9.5 m
- wingspan
- 14.7 m
- height
- 3 m
- max take-off weight
- 1,350 kg
- top speed
- 105 km/h
- range
- 200 km
- ceiling
- 3,500 m
- wings
- biplane
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
family
Sources: Wikidata Q3130446, Wikipedia: Voisin III (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.