The young Bombardier discovered his passion for mechanics at Valcourt, a small farming village in the Eastern Townships of Québec. As early as age 13, he was ingeniously manufacturing tractors, locomotives, and miniature boats equipped with clockwork mechanisms. Everything around him seemed to stimulate his inventive mind: he connected an aunt's spinning wheel to a steam engine and converted an old rifle to a miniature cannon. It was then that he glimpsed the challenge of his career: liberating the countryside from the long, oppressive winter by conquering the obstacle of snow.
New Year's Surprise
On New Year's Eve 1922, Joseph-Armand had a very special surprise for his family. From his father's workshop emerged a strange contraption, an old Ford engine mounted on four runners. Perched on the back, the 15-year-old started up a large hand-made propeller. The family watched with a mixture of awe and horror as the bizarre invention traveled a kilometre over the village streets, raising an infernal din. In front, Joseph-Armand's young brother Léopold steered the "diabolical machine" with his feet. The inventor had just tested his first snowmobile, the forebear of the Ski-Doo.
Although he considered his son's "gadgets" as increasingly dangerous, Alfred Bombardier did not stand in the way of his ambitions. Joseph-Armand would always remain attached to his family and village, and his relatives would participate in all of his projects. Young Bombardier worked as an apprentice mechanic in a local garage by day and studied the rudiments of electrical and mechanical engineering by night. He even learned English so he could unravel the mysteries of technological journals. When he was 19, his father built him his own garage. He soon started a family, and to enhance his modest beginnings, he manufactured his own tools and certain automobile parts. To meet his electrical needs, he built a dam on a nearby watercourse and installed a mini-turbine.
Local farmers appreciated his ingenuity. The garage mechanic not only repaired farm machinery, but also motorized saws, grain threshers, and water pumps. He was soon able to repay his father and devote his savings to his obsession: developing a light-weight winter vehicle that was easy to manoeuvre in all snow conditions. For 10 years, dozens of bizarre prototypes paraded forth before skeptical eyes, the products of passionate research, trial, and error. Among other challenges, Bombardier adjusted the traction and drive method, and reduced the weight of the articulated chains known as caterpillar tracks.
First Successes
In January 1934, Bombardier's two-year-old child died because the family could not reach the hospital in time. Joseph-Armand approached his invention with a new sense of urgency. In 1935, he finally assembled a vehicle that ran on rubber and cotton caterpillar tracks and could hold two or three passengers. This was a technological breakthrough. The following year, success forced him to increase the capacity to five passengers and then seven - the B7, with its rounded plywood cabin and sophisticated suspension system, was born. With this first patented mechanical system, the name Bombardier began to circulate around the province. The first buyers (about a hundred in 1939) were country doctors, ambulance drivers, and priests in remote areas. Soon the market expanded to retail businesses, transportation companies, electrical utilities, telephone companies, mail carriers, and forestry operations.
In 1937, Bombardier was granted exclusive patent rights for the commercial use of his snowmobile. He gradually converted his garage into a manufacturing company, Auto-Neige Bombardier. The young entrepreneur hired farm labourers from Valcourt and trained them as specialized workers. His brothers and cousins held leading positions in management, production sales, and technical research. A solid promotional campaign was launched. It was not long before a new plant was turning out 200 snowmobiles a year.
The war broke out, however, and the Canadian Armed Forces showed interest in Bombardier's B12, but wanted a more powerful model adapted to moving troops and military equipment in winter. War operations were developed around these small, armoured, fulltrack, amphibious transports. The postwar balance sheet, however was gloomy. The Canadian government refused to pay any royalties for using his discoveries.
Into New Fields
In spite of many obstacles, 1947 production reached 1,000 vehicles, including the C18s, designed to carry as many as 25 school children at a time! They could be seen crisscrossing La Belle Province, and soon the market expanded into Ontario and Western Canada. In the popular imagination, they would become a national symbol of sorts.
The winter of 1947/48 brought other setbacks. First, lack of snow caused sales to plummet, but even worse, governments were now clearing snow from country roads, which quickly made the snowmobile seem obsolete. To survive, the inventor dreamed up a new snowclearing machine, but American competition beat him to the punch. Bombardier was forced to leave the snow trails for a brief time to tackle other difficult terrain - the farm, mining and forestry markets. He developed new industrial vehicles, including several caterpillar vehicles for oil exploration. In 1953 he produced the Muskeg, a technological marvel capable of traveling anywhere, from swamp to forest, from Antarctica to the Sahara.
His worldwide success allowed Bombardier to return to an old dream: a smaller, ultralight model of the snowmobile at a price to match any budget. In 1958, he tested the first wooden prototype. In 1959, he personally delivered the first Ski-Doo to a missionary in remote northern Ontario. The famous snowmobile would revolutionize life in northern communities. Its recreational use largely ensured the company's prosperity even after Bombardier's death in 1963.
An International Standard
The Bombardier empire has continued to grow and diversify. From its head office in Montréal, the company manages a close-knit network of subsidiaries in eight countries on two continents. In the 1970s, it continued to diversify. In 1982, it landed the prestigious New York City subway contract. In an agreement with Alsthom, the inventor of the TGV [France's high speed train], Bombardier was granted the North American marketing and manufacturing rights to the TGV. In 1986, the firm ventured into production of aerospace equipment, which now includes a subcontract from Airbus. More recently, Bombardier won the contract to build the trains for the "Chunnel." The Bombardier "spirit" that has ensured such success is a spirit of initiative and responsibility combined with consistent technological advancement, workmanship, and pride in the past.
Historica Minute Cast
| age 12 | Vincent Bolduc | |
| age 29 | Patrick Labbée | |
| Jeweller | Gaston Lepage | |
| General Store Owner | Michel Forget | |
| Additional Cast | Sebastian Bailey | |
| Additional Cast | Jamieson Pierre Boulanger | |
| Additional Cast | Michael G. Rudder | |
| Additional Cast | Terrence Scammel |
