J. Armand Bombardier

This article was originally written and submitted as part of a Canada 150 Project, the Innovation Storybook, to crowdsource stories of Canadian innovation with partners across Canada. The content has since been migrated to Ingenium’s Channel, a digital hub featuring curated content related to science, technology and innovation.

Feb 24, 2016

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By: Algonquin college

Armand Bombardier, seated at the wheel of the Bombardier military snowmobile in 1943. Credit: Library and Archives Canada reference number WRM 276.

Patrick Jodoin

Algonquin College Journalism

From a young age, Joseph-Armand Bombardier had an interest in mechanics and wanted to find ways to solve transportation problems caused by harsh Canadian winters. In fact, by the time he was a teenager, Bombardier had already built his first snowmobile.

Bombardier was born in 1907 in rural Quebec. His parents sent him to a seminary to become a priest, but after three years, Bombardier’s preoccupation with engines prevailed and he began studying mechanics. Eventually, he opened his own shop in Valcourt, Quebec, and started patenting his inventions. Bombardier’s creations included a snow removal apparatus, traction devices, tractor units and a machine for limbing trees and cutting logs. At the time, the province did not supply snow ploughing and Bombardier’s inventions revolutionized travel in snow and other difficult conditions.

In 1942 he created l’Auto-Neige Bombardier Limitée, selling snowmobiles which were used as ambulances, to deliver mail, take children to and from school and carry freight. During World War II, he offered his expertise to the Canadian government developing military vehicles. After the war, Bombardier developed all-terrain vehicles for the forestry, mining and oil industries, as well as snow ploughs specifically for use on city sidewalks. These smaller vehicles would eventually become the first Ski-Doo snowmobiles.

When Bombardier died in 1964, he left behind a thriving company that today is a global leader in railway technology and aerospace engineering. Bombardier was inducted into the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame in 1992.

Transcript

A boyhood fascination with tinkering evolves into a career as innovator and entrepreneur (1920).

A Bombardier snowmobile from CN collection. Artifact no. 1973.0278.001

This is a wood bodied Bombardier B-12 snow bus, which were built between 1951 and 52, when production switched to metal bodies.

Chemist’s war-time research leads to discovery

“Worth Defending” – A brief look at the 1954 advertising campaign of a major Canadian aircraft manufacturing firm, Canadair Limited of Montréal, Québec, part 4

The advertisement “La liberté d’expression,” in English “Freedom of Speech,” published by Canadair Limited of Montréal, Québec, as part of its 1954 Worth Defending advertising campaign. Anon, “Canadair Limited.” La Presse, 13 April 1954, 25.

“Worth Defending” – A brief look at the 1954 advertising campaign of a major Canadian aircraft manufacturing firm, Canadair Limited of Montréal, Québec, part 3

“Freedom of Worship,” one of the advertisements issued by Canadair Limited of Montréal, Québec, as part of its 1954 Worth Defending advertising campaign. Anon., “Canadair Limited.” The Vancouver Province, 5 January 1954, 5.

“Worth Defending” – A brief look at the 1954 advertising campaign of a major Canadian aircraft manufacturing firm, Canadair Limited of Montréal, Québec, part 2

One of the advertisements issued by Canadair Limited of Montréal, Québec, as part of its 1954 Worth Defending advertising campaign. Anon., “Canadair Limited.” Toronto Daily Star, 6 October 1954, 4.

“Worth Defending” – A brief look at the 1954 advertising campaign of a major Canadian aircraft manufacturing firm, Canadair Limited of Montréal, Québec, part 1

A block of photographs showing some of the people involved in the bombing of beluga whales in the estuary and gulf of the St. Lawrence River. Anon., “La chasse aux marsouins [sic]. » Le Devoir, 15 August 1929, 6.

“The bomb that will kill the porpoise” – A shocking use of air power in interwar Québec: The bombing of the beluga whales of the St. Lawrence River, part 4

A typical pod of beluga whales, Hudson Bay, near Churchill, Manitoba, July 1999. Ansgar Walk, via Wikipedia.

“The bomb that will kill the porpoise” – A shocking use of air power in interwar Québec: The bombing of the beluga whales of the St. Lawrence River, part 3

The Franco Canadian physician / pilot Louis Cuisinier and one of the 45 or so kilogram (100 or so pounds) handmade aerial bombs with which he hoped to kill beluga whales. Anon., “La bombe qui tuera le marsouin.” La Presse, 5 August 1929, 11.

“The bomb that will kill the porpoise” – A shocking use of air power in interwar Québec: The bombing of the beluga whales of the St. Lawrence River, part 1

Several exhibition display cases, panels, and screens in a large, brightly-lit air hangar-style room with a high ceiling and tall, exposed metal walls.

Diane Pitre and Steven P. Deschamps’ LGBT Purge Stories Told at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum

An Institute for Aerospace Research staff member conducting an inspection on a Shuttle Remote Manipulator System, or Canadarm, around 2000. National Research Council Canada.

“It is only with the DAIS that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye” – A respectful look at a great Canadian aerospace invention, the Diffracto DAIS non destructive testing equipment, and a bit more, part 2

$A technician conducting the first corrosion detection trial, on a Boeing Model 727 test airframe, using a Diffracto DAIS-500 non destructive testing equipment, 1992. National Research Council Canada.$

“It is only with the DAIS that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye” – A respectful look at a great Canadian aerospace invention, the Diffracto DAIS non destructive testing equipment, and a bit more, part 1

Louis Damblanc, French pioneer of rocketry, and the device he designed to launch short-range postal rockets, circa 1937. Alexandre Ananoff, “L’histoire des fusées.” La Nature, 15 May 1939, 312.

“I preferred to be a cutting edge engineer” The most important rocketry pioneer you have never heard of, the French engineer and inventor Louis Damblanc, part 1

The Myasishchev M-50 supersonic strategic bomber at the July 1961 air show, near Túshinskiy, USSR. Seymour Topping, “Thousands See New Planes – Russ Flex Air Might in Aviation Day Show.” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, 10 July 1961, 8.

“Fakes that pay off:” A brief glance at the totally fictitious nuclear-powered Soviet super bomber ‘revealed’ in December 1958 by the American magazine Aviation Week, Part 3

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J. Armand Bombardier

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