Don Piccard

Donald Louis Piccard (January 13, 1926 – September 13, 2020) was a Swiss-born American balloon pioneer, promoter, innovator, designer, builder, and pilot.

Piccard was born in Lausanne, Switzerland to Jean Felix Piccard and Jeanette (Ridlon) Piccard. He became a naturalized United States citizen in 1931. Don Piccard first flew in a balloon in 1933, when he was enlisted as "crew" by his mother. She was the first woman to fly to the edge of space and the first American woman to earn a balloon pilot's license. Don Piccard served as a balloon and airship rigger in the United States Navy during World War II and at Naval Air Station Lakehurst during the Korean War. In 1948, Piccard organized the first balloon club in the United States, the Balloon Club of America.

On August 17, 1959, Piccard flew a red, white and blue balloon basket at a centennial commemoration of John Wise's Jupiter balloon flight of United States mail. In the same basket he set a gas balloon world record altitude of 34,642 feet on July 19, 1961 from Faribault, Minnesota.

Piccard pioneered plastic and Mylar balloons for superpressure balloons.

Hot air ballooning

In 1962, he founded the nation's first hot-air balloon race at the St. Paul Winter Carnival. Also in 1963 at Kalamazoo, Michigan, Piccard clerked the first National Aeronautic Association-recognized National Hot Air Balloon Championship.

Piccard worked on thermal balloons at Raven Industries from 1962-1964. At Raven, he is credited with making hot air balloons safer by the use of load tapes, lobular gore design, light weight long life fabric and non-conductive materials. Most notably load tapes in the design and construction of balloons receives credit as the single greatest factor in hot air balloon safety and is used in today’s manufacturing. In 1985 he sold the Federal Aviation Authority balloon type-certificates to Galaxy Balloons and The Balloon Works.

Piccard appeared as himself on the November 13, 1961 episode of the CBS gameshow To Tell the Truth. He also appeared as a "Mr. X" guest on What's My Line on September 1, 1963, where he stated he was from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Piccard died in St. Paul, Minnesota in 2020 at the age of 94.

Piccard Balloons Piccard Balloons was an American manufacturer of hot air balloons. Don Piccard, descended from a long line of aeronauts, built and sold some of the first modern hot air balloons, beginning in the mid-1960s.

Piccard family Auguste Piccard (physicist, balloonist, hydronaut) Jacques Piccard (hydronaut) Bertrand Piccard (psychiatrist, balloonist) Jean Felix Piccard (organic chemist and balloonist; twin brother of Auguste) Jeannette Piccard (wife of Jean Felix) (balloonist) Don Piccard (balloonist; son of Jean and Jeannette, nephew of Auguste)