From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Bombardier is a Canadian company, founded in Valcourt in the Eastern Townships, Quebec by Joseph-Armand Bombardier. The company is a world leading manufacturer of business jets, regional aircraft, trains, snowmobiles, and small watercraft. It has 80,000 employees, and 16 billion dollars (Canadian) in gross revenues (2001). The aerospace arm (Bombardier Aerospace) accounts for over half of the company's revenue.
The rail portion of the company (Bombardier Transportation) built the Turbostar class 170 units which are widely used throughout Britain. They also built the Croydon Tramlink trams and parts of Alstom's Eurostar trains. They are one of the companies which took over British Rail's R&D facilities after privatization (the remainder largely being absorbed into AEA Technology and Alstom).
Bombardier Transportation also leads the development and production of the Acela Express train in a 75%-25% arrangement with Alstom. The train runs between Boston, New York City and Washington, D.C. Bombardier provided carbody design and tilting mechanisms from its successful LRC ("Light Rapid Comfortable") line of passenger trainsets, and integrated a unique variant of Alstom's TGV propulsion system. This is the first high-speed rail line in North America, running at a top speed of 240 km/h (150 mi/h). To meet U.S. government "Buy American" regulations, final assembly of these trains was performed at Bombardier's U.S. rail car assembly facility in Barre, Vermont. Bombardier also provided seller-arranged financing to allow Amtrak to lease the trainsets rather than purchasing them outright as had previously been done.
They also make Ski-doo brand snowmobiles, Sea-doo personal watercraft and boats, and Bombardier all-terrain vehicles. They were until recently a major Canadian defense contractor. With the latest restructuration of the company they have sold off nearly all of their military related work in Canada. However they continue to participate in military contracts in other countries, such as in the United Kingdom, with the ASTOR (Airborne STand-Off Radar) conversion of the long range Challenger Global Express jet.
In 2001 Bombardier Transportation acquired Adtranz, making it the second largest manufacturer of railway rolling stock in the world. Depending on how one defines industrial activites, it is sometimes considered the largest in the world in this category.
Bombardier has been criticized in Canada and abroad for its massive government subsidies. This corporate welfare has been viewed as a violation of free trade agreements, especially by Brazil which has complained internationally about them. Many Canadians also feel tax money should not go to wealthy companies. The government defends these policies arguing that they create many jobs and that Bombardier would never have become an integral part of the Canadian economy without subsidies. Bombardier agressively seeks out state support in every country in which it has plants, and often obtains it, in the form of direct subsidies, tax cuts, free land, previous debt erasal or other forms. To give but two examples: It obtained tremendous sums in indirect ways from the United Kingdom when it acquired Short Brothers of Belfast, and modest but important incentives from the state of Vermont when it opened an assembly plant there.
