Armand Zipfel was a neighbour and youth friend of the Voisin brothers. After witnessing the flights of Henry Farman he decided in early 1908 to build a motorized airplane. He started the “Ateliers d’Aviation de Sud Est” and was allowed to use the drawings of the Voisin plane. He made his first flights at Villeurbaine, east of Lyon, in November 1908, becoming the sixth Frenchman to fly.

After a visit to Germany in early 1910 he appears to have stopped flying in public.

Albert Ziegler, born in Zeiden (today Codlea) next to Kronstadt (Braşov), Transylvania, worked as an engineer in the motor and aviation business in Switzerland, France and England before coming to Germany in 1911. There he assisted Prinz Sigismund von Preußen in building a glider, and was employed by Rumpler, Wright and Garuda. In 1912 Ziegler acquired a used 50-55 hp Argus engine and a shed at the Bornstedter Feld near Potsdam from the Siemens-Schuckert company, where at least a year was needed to realise his “Pfeil-Eindecker”.