On Thursday, the 2010 Olympic Torch, which was designed and manufactured by Bombardier Inc., will transport the Olympic Flame to the Host City of Vancouver after traveling approximately 28,000 miles across Canada through snow, rain, hail, wind and sub-zero temperatures.
In collaboration with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Bombardier engineers and industrial designers spent more than two years designing and testing the 2010 Olympic Torch.
Inspired by the contours of Canada's winter landscape, the design of the 2010 Olympic Torch symbolizes the tracks created in snow and ice by winter sports. A fuel blend of propane and isobutane allows the torch to burn in colder temperatures than any other torch in Olympic history. A vent in the side of the torch allows the Olympic Flame to unfurl like a flag.
Prototypes of the torch were tested in a weather simulation chamber before the final design was put to the test in Canada's bone-chilling winter. Bombardier manufactured 12,000 torches — one for each torchbearer — with final assembly completed by hand in Montreal, Quebec.