Antoinette

Antoinette was a short-lived French manufacturer, active between 1903 and 1912, of advanced lightweight petrol engines, and later a builder of graceful monoplane aircraft flown by pilots such as Hubert Latham. The company, La Société Antoinette, was led by the engineer Léon Levavasseur and financed by Jules Gastambide, who served as president while Levavasseur was technical director; the aviator Louis Blériot was for a time its vice-president. It was incorporated in 1906, based in Puteaux, and took its name from Gastambide's daughter. Its water-cooled V-8 engines, with light aluminium parts, an evaporative cooling system and fuel injected into each cylinder, powered the Santos-Dumont 14-bis in October 1906 and the Farman-Voisin biplane that made Europe's first one kilometre circular flight in January 1908. The firm also showed a car with a 32hp V-8 at the 1906 Paris Salon and supplied engines for racing boats. Its engines were fast and light, though vibration and fragile fittings made them less dependable than later rotary engines.