Joseph-Armand Bombardier

Joseph-Armand Bombardier was a Canadian inventor and entrepreneur who was the founder of Bombardier, a multinational corporation that produces transportation equipment and vehicles. He was born in Valcourt, Quebec, on April 16, 1907. He showed a keen interest in mechanics from an early age, and built his first snow vehicle at the age of 15. He opened his own garage at 19, where he repaired cars and machinery. He also worked on developing a vehicle that could travel on snow, as he experienced the difficulty of reaching a hospital during a blizzard when his young son died of peritonitis. He invented the first snowmobile in 1935, which ran on caterpillar tracks and could carry several passengers. He patented his sprocket wheel and track drive system in 1937, and started selling his B7 snowmobiles in 1939. He also produced specialized vehicles for military, logging, and mining purposes. He founded the L'Auto-Neige Bombardier Limitée in 1942, which later became Bombardier Inc. He faced a decline in demand after the Quebec government began clearing snow from secondary roads in 1948, and shifted his focus to smaller and lighter snowmobiles for recreational use. He launched the Ski-Doo in 1959, which became a huge success and created a new market for winter sports. He died of cancer in Valcourt, Quebec, on February 18, 1964, at the age of 56. He is widely regarded as a pioneer and a visionary in the field of snow transportation.