|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
Date of birth: Place of birth:
Calling: Historical Site:
|
Photo : Musée Joseph-Armand Bombardier
|
||
|
Joseph-Armand Bombardier was
the eldest of eight children. His parents, Anna
Gravel and Alfred Bombardier, farmed and also ran
the general store. Joseph-Armand early showed a
definite talent for mechanics and a great passion
for machines. He had all the tools he needed to
make his talent bloom. At 15, he assembled his
first snowmobile, propelled by a wooden propeller
that threatened to decapitate passers-by at any
moment. In 1926, he became a garage mechanic in
Valcourt. He immediately grasped the operation of
complex machinery. His reputation spread around the
Eastern Townships and people came from afar to
consult him. On August 7, 1929, he married Yvonne
Labrecque, with whom he had six children.
In his spare time, he devoted
himself to research, for he had one obsession: to
built a vehicle that could conquer winter storms
and so end the isolation of rural communities. In
1937, after years of effort and persistence,
Bombardier produced a seven-passenger transporter
(B-7) and obtained a patent for his tracked drive
system that henceforth equipped all his vehicles.
In 1940, the military took an interest in his B7
snowmobile which was capable of moving troops over
ice, sand and swamps. He produced several hundred
of them but did not receive royalties as the
inventor, since Ottawa apparently considered that
production as his contribution to the war effort.
In 1942, he launched the B12 model. Modernized, it
was furnished with an independent suspension on
each axle. That year, the inventor incorporated
himself and founded Auto-Neige Bombardier Inc. In
1948, Bombardier decided to build all-terrain
vehicles for the exploration industries. The end of
the 1950s saw the culmination of his work on the
development of a small individual vehicle: the
Ski-Dog, better known under the name of Ski-Doo
(snowmobile) because of a printing error in the
documentation given to the distributors.
With that invention,
Joseph-Armand Bombardier solved the problem of
individual transportation on snow in remote areas
and gave birth to a new industry. Ten years after
his death, more than a million Ski-Doos crisscross
the fields and forests of the world. A great
visionary, he laid the foundations of an empire,
the Bombardier Corporation. This is a Quebec firm
of international scope and one of the largest
Canadian manufacturers. Its areas of activity are
diversified (recreational products, railway
transport, aeronautics, capital and services).
Bombardier has a presence in more than 80 countries
and employs nearly 47,000 people.
|
|||
Province:
