J. Armand Bombardier
Joseph-Armand Bombardier was born in Valcourt in 1907, He was the eldest of eight children born to Anna Gravel and Alfred Bombardier, who was a farmer who turned into a general merchant. On August 7, 1929, he married Yvonne Labrecque and together they had six children: Germain, Yvon, Janine, Claire, Huguette and Andre. When Bombardier was 15 he built his first snowmobile. He took the engine out of an old Model T Ford and mounted it on to the frame of a large farm sleigh. He put steering runners at the front and heavier, rigid runners at the back. He bolted a large hand-whittled propeller to the drive shaft of the engine The snowmobile was a success; it climbed over snowdrifts and traveled the ground with ease. Unfortunately, Bombardier's father was not impressed and made him dismantle the whole thing and put the pieces away. Bombardier continued to design snowmobiles. By the time he had graduated from high school in Sherbrooke and returned to Valcourt as a garage owner,
By 1936 he had sold his first commercial snowmobile. It had a plywood body and rubber tracks driven by sprockets, which together with a spring suspension system gave a smoother ride and increased traction. The wooden cabin was completely enclosed and the whole structure was quite large. During the next few years he developed a steel body to replace the wooden one and this paved the way for production of snowmobiles in much larger numbers. Along with solving the problems of personal transportation on snow, Joseph-Armand Bombardier created a vehicle that would give rise to a new sport and a new industry. Before he died in 1964, he had seen the first signs of the huge success of the snowmobile. A man of great vision, he laid the foundation for Bombardier Inc., the large diversified multinational corporation we know today. Bombardier Inc. makes many billions of dollars and produces such things as Skidoo snowmobiles, Seadoo personal watercraft and boats, different types of trains, planes and jets, ATV's a
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Approximate Word count = 678
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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