Gaston Vinet was a well-known French car manufacturer and coachwork builder in the 1900s, who became interested in airplanes around 1904. He started with the construction of gliders, then built a series of monoplanes between 1910 and 1913. The first Vinet monoplane (the 1910 type A) was designed after extensive research on the curvature of the wings, resulting in the characteristic upturned tips, and it was extensively tested with different centres of gravity to achieve maximum stability. The pilot was seated in a gondola under the wings. This arrangement lowered the center of gravity and provided good longitudinal and transverse stability.