Snowmobile (Bombardier B7)
Motonieve (B7 de Bombardier)
- Date
- 1937 · confidence high
- Place
- Valcourt, Quebec, Canada
- Credited to
- Joseph-Armand Bombardier
- Field
- Movement
What it is
An enclosed vehicle with rubber tracks driven by a sprocket and front skis for snow, patented by Bombardier in 1937. The seven-passenger B7 opened the rural Quebec winter to ambulances, mail and buses.
Bombardier had built his first prototype at fifteen; his sprocket-and-track system was patented in 1937 and the B12 (1942) was the most widely used version.
What it led to
- transport and services in snowy regions throughout winter
- the personal Ski-Doo snowmobile (1959) and winter sport
- the Bombardier company, later a maker of trains and aircraft