SNOWMOBILESBy: Colman Grimm

A snowmobile is a land vehicle for winter travel on snow. They are designed to be driven on snow or ice. Their engine drives a continuous track at the back, and the skis in the front provide directional control. Originally were powered by two-stroke engines. Four stroke engines are becoming more popular mostly because of environmental complaints.

What It Is

The patent for a snowmobile was issued to Carl J. Eliason of Wisconsin in 1927.

Through 1927 and 1962 13 patents were granted.

Joseph-Armand Bombardier designed the modern snowmobile in 1958. Granted a Canadian patent in 1960 and a U.S. patent in 1962. He is considered the father of snowmobiling.

History

The headquarters is in Thief River Falls, MN. It was founded by Edgar Hetteen In 1960

after he left Polaris Industries. Was first called Polar Manufacturing but

changed to Arctic Enterprises. They made their first snowmobile in 1960.

They filed bankruptcy in 1982 but could continue the production of snowmobiles and in 1996 changed the name to Arctic Cat.

Arctic Cat

The headquarters are in Medina, MN. Polaris was founded in 1954 by Edgar

Hetteen and Allan Hetteen. There first snowmobile was finished in

1954, soon a second model was created, called the Polaris Sno Traveler. The first production model rolled off the assembly line in MN in 1956. In 1964 Polaris released the Comet and in 1965 the Mustang.

Polaris went on to become one of the leaders in the snowmobile industry.

Polaris

The headquarters are in Iwata, Shizuoka, Japan. It was founded in July 1, 1955. Yamaha Motor Company is a Japanese motorized

Vehicle producing company, part of Yamaha Corporation.

In 2010 Yamaha was the only snowmobile manufacturer to use a 4-stroke engine. It was not the first modern four-stroke snowmobile produced . Yamaha was the first brand to win with a 4-stroke in a professional snowcross race in 2006.

Yamaha

It was founded in 1942 by Joseph and Armand Bombardier.

The headquarters are Valcourt, Quebec, Canada. The Ski-Doo was originally intended to be

named the Ski-Dog because Bombardier meant it to be a practical vehicle to replace the dogsled for hunters and trappers.

By accident a painter misread the name and painted Ski-Doo on the first prototype. In the first year 255 were sold.

Ski-Doo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_Corporation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Cat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaris_Industries http://

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_Recreational_Products

http://img1.findthebest.com/sites/default/files/887/media/images/Ski-Doo_MX_Z_X-RS.png

http://images-en.busytrade.com/185242100/2011-Yamaha-Snowmobile-Fx-Nytro-Rtx.jpg

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml06/06547a.jpg

http://blog.bssd.org/mu/newtechnologies/files/2009/01/polaris1.png

Websites

The End