Charles Bombardier

Background

Charles Bombardier was born in Valcourt, Canada. Bombardier's grandfather was Joseph-Armand Bombardier, founder of Bombardier Inc. and Bombardier Recreational Products and inventor of the snowmobile. In 1991, Bombardier began working for his family's company at 16 on the Ski-Doo assembly line in Valcourt.

Education

Bombardier first completed a technical degree at the CEGEP of Lévis-Lauzon in 1994. He then attended the École de technologie supérieure in Montreal, Quebec where he received, in 1998, his Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. In 2015, he completed his Master’s degree in applied science (M.Sc.A.) writing a memoir on the subject of crowdfunding and innovation management.

Career

Bombardier began his career with Bombardier Recreational Products where he managed various engineering team. Among them the Bombardier Traxter XL ATV, the Elite Snowmobile by Ski-Doo and the Spyder roadster motorcycle by Can-Am. In 2008 Bombardier left the family business to create electric vehicle prototypes.

In 2013 focused his research on the product ideation process. He began converting his ideas into design concepts related to the future of mobility. The Globe and Mail hired him soon after to start writing weekly column. In 2016 Conde Nast’s Wired magazine followed and offered him a columnist position.

Charles Bombardier in one of the early of Tandem Launch Technologies, an IT Incubator founded by Helge Seetzen. He invested in several other Canadian Start-up and was elected in June 2016 to the board of the Order of Engineers of Québec. in June 2016.

Concept designs

Bombardier began publishing his concepts online in March 2013. The concept designs Bombardier publishes range from cars, motorcycles, planes, and boats. Each design includes a narrative explaining Bombardier's reasoning for developing the idea and how the design works. Bombardier collaborates with multiple different designers who take his ideas into concepts. Bombardier does not patent his designs and publishes them on his website to gather feedback and improve his designs. The concepts are meant to attract the attention of potential investors and manufacturers and create potential business opportunities.

Skreemr and Antipode Supersonic Aircraft

The Skreemr and Antipode concepts depict two types of hypersonic aircraft concepts able to fly from New York to London in less than 11 minutes Reusable rocket boosters would initially accelerate and propel the aircraft to Mach 5, after which, scramjets engines would take over and continue accelerating them up to Mach 24. An opening in the Antipode’s nose would expel counter-flowing jets of air to cool the aircraft surface and reduced its sonic booms. This technology, dubbed long penetration mode (LPM), was inspired by a NASA study. Both concepts were featured in many magazines including Popular Mechanics and Architectural Digest, CNN and Forbes amongst others.

Seataci

The Seataci is a yacht concept that uses a biomimetic propulsion system resembling the movement of whale’s tail. Its main hull would be lowered underwater, providing passengers with an excellent underwater view of the coral reefs and marine life. It features a dozen villas and two landing pads specially designed for personal flying drones. It received a lot of press around the world and appeared in the Daily Mail,Forbes,Business Insider and hundreds of other websites around the world.

The Solar Express

The Solar Express is a space train that would be designed and used to ferry humans, supplies and minerals between celestial bodies and space stations in our solar system. It would run non-stop, so smaller vessels would need to catch the train when it passed by. It provides an artist’s rendering of a Mars cycler spacecraft. The Solar Express concept generated thousands of articles around the globe in dozens of languages including Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, German, Italian, Russian and many others.