BOMBARDIER (continued): • With the success of the B7, Bombardier expanded into military vehicles and he became a major supplier for the World War II effort. After the war, he pushed ahead to improve his inventions, producing a 12-passenger snowmobile, which was an immediate winner with police departments, the timber industry, and mining companies. An 18-passenger model quickly followed, which was used by schools in the snowy climate of Quebec and Ontario. • Bombardier was soon designing vehicles to undertake different terrains, such as swamps, bogs, and mud. Some had tracks for traction, while others had an interchangeable system of wheels and skis. In 1953, he introduced the all-terrain Muskeg tractor, able to haul skiers up a mountain as well as clear roads. .
(Answer located 2 pages after this one)
• Perhaps his best-known triumph came along in 1953. Using a lighter engine, Bombardier created the Ski-Doo snowmobile, a $900 machine for outdoor recreation lovers. Originally slated to be called the Ski-Dog, intended to replace the dogsled, it became the Ski-Doo when a painter misread the name and painted Ski-Doo on the prototype. Mass production of the unit began in 1959, and was immediately embraced not only by recreationists, but hunters, prospectors, surveyors, missionaries, and trappers as well. Bombardier’s company was enjoying annual sales of $3.5 million by the end of the 1950s. • Along with his genius mechanical abilities, Joseph was devoted to community service and had a great love of music, singing in the church choir and accompanying his children on the piano. In the midst of an exceptional career, he died at age 56. Following his death, the family-owned business expanded into locomotives and aircraft, and today Learjet is one of their subsidiaries.
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