So Voison left Bleriot to his own devices and in 1906 teamed up with his brother Charles to start Appareils d'Aviation Les Frères Voisin. The brothers established the first airplane factory in the world at Billancourt, France, making any design that a customer wanted. A Russian prince ordered a craft with a propeller in the shape of a spiral staircase. A Dutchman paid for a set of wings grafted onto a "kind of car" – it failed to fly. But their most successful aircraft were those they designed themselves. In March 1907, they decided to improve upon the float-glider that Gabriel had made for Archdeacon. They built a Chanute-style glider with  biplane wings and a box-kite tail. The craft flew reasonably well, and this became the jumping-off point for a line of increasingly airworthy aircraft.

Later in 1907, the Voisons made an airplane for Leon Delagrange in the same style as this glider, but added an elevator in front, similar to the standard Wright configuration or "de type Wright.. To push the aircraft through the air, they mounted a 50-horsepower Antoinette engine and a propeller on the lower wing.   Although it had no roll control, Delagrange was able to make short hops of up to 500 meters (1650 feet). As such, the Voisin-Delagrange I was the first European airplane to best the Wright's first powered flights of 1903.

Soon after, Delagrange brought Henri Farman, the son of a prominent British journalist and a French woman, to the Voison aircraft plant. Farman was a painter, cyclist, and automobile racer who had been bitten by the aviation bug. He first took to the air in a home-built Chanute-Herring glider, then on Delagrange's advice approached the Voison brothers for something with power. Farman carefully looked over the plans Gabriel and Charles laid before him, then ordered a Voison aircraft with a few minor – but important – modifications.

Farman began to fly the Voison-Farman I on September 30, 1907, making a modest hop of just 30 meters (100 feet). Thereafter, he began to stretch the distance little by little. He also modified the airplane as he gained more flying experience, reducing the size of the tail, and adjusting the dihedral angle of the wings, all to reduce drag, improve stability, and make the airplane more maneuverable. However, even in its final form, it had no roll control – Farman made do with an elevator and rudder only.

On 26 October 1907, Farman made a flight of 712 meters (2,350 feet) and won a second Archdeacon Cup. This was a prize that Ernest Archdeacon had offered to the aviator who made the longest flight during the year. On 19 November1907, Farman made a run at the Grand Prix de Aviation, the prize offered by Ernest Archdeacon and Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe for the first closed-circuit flight of over one kilometer. However, Farman didn't quite complete the circular course. Orville Wright, who was still in Europe, witnessed Farman's attempt. When asked by the reporters for a comment on the rapid progress of French aviation, he was cool and criticized the French airplane's control system only obliquely. "Time will show whether the methods of control used in the Farman machine are adequate to meet the conditions encountered in windy weather," he was quoted. Privately, he wrote to Chanute that the French were busy but "we see no indication of a practical machine in the near future."

Archdeacon, ever the Wright detractor, took affront at Orville's attitude. "The famous Wright brothers may claim all they wish," he blustered. "If it were true – and I doubt it more and more – that they were the first to fly through the air, they will not have the glory…The first authentic experiments in powered aviation have taken place in France; they will progress in France; and the…Wrights will, I am sure, be beaten by us as well before they will have decided to show their phantom machine."