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4Balloon Life, July 1997

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BALLOON LIFEMAGAZINE

EDITOR

Editor

Volume 12, Number 7July 1997

Editor-In-ChiefPublisher

Tom HamiltonContributing Editors

Ron Behrmann, George Denniston,Mike Rose, Peter Stekel

ColumnistsChristine Kalakuka, Bill Murtorff,

Don PiccardStaff Photographer

Ron BehrmannContributors

Allen Amsbaugh, Roger Bansemer,Jan Frjdman, Graham Hannah,

Glen Moyer, Bill Randol,Polly Anna Randol, Rob Schantz,

Tina Reeves, Gary Rominger

How to contact us:2336 47th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98116

Fax: 206-935-3326e-mail: tom@balloonlife.com

Internet: http://balloonlife.com/Phone: 206-935-3649

50 Years1997 marks the 50th anniversary for a number of important dates in aviation history

including the formation of the U.S. Air Force. The most widely known of the 1947“firsts” is Chuck Yeager’s breaking the sound barrier in an experimental jet—the X-1.

Today two other famous firsts are celebrated on television by the “X-Files.” In earlyJuly near the small southwestern New Mexico town of Roswell the first aliens from outerspace were reported to have been taken into custody when their “flying saucer” crashedand burned.

The other surreal first had taken place two weeks earlier. Kenneth Arnold observeda strange sight while flying a search and rescue mission near Mt. Rainier in Washingtonstate. After he landed in Pendelton, Oregon he told reporters that he had seen a group offlying objects. He described the ships as being “pie shaped” with “half domes” comingout the tops. Arnold coined the term “flying saucers.”

For the last fifty years unidentified flying objects have dominated unexplainablesighting in the sky. Even sonic booms from jet aircraft can still generate phone calls tolocal emergency assistance numbers.

Today, debate about visitors from another galaxy captures the headlines. Yeager’shistoric flight will surely be noted with appropriate marketing opportunities. But 1947is more notable for another first flight.

In 1947, before Yeager, before aliens, before flying saucers, there was one reportedflight that set the course of history for one segment of aviation. On February 16, 1947Don Piccard lifted off from Minneapolis, Minnesota in a Japanese-made paper balloon.His goal was to stay aloft long enough to earn a balloon pilot rating. A little over twohours later, the mission accomplished, he landed near White Bear Lake, Minnesota.

That flight earned Piccard the first civilian balloon pilot rating to be issued afterWorld War II. 50 years later the “Dean of American Ballooning” is still active in thedevelopment and promotion of lighter-than-air flight.

This month Balloon Life’s special report focuses on Don Piccard’s 50 years inballooning. Our 8100 word article and 23 photographs barely scratch the surface of hislife-long endeavors and adventures.

Throughout the last 50 years he has been at the forefront of promoting lighter-than-air flight. Soon after leaving the Navy at the end of the war, he tried to form a balloonclub. When Yost made that first historic flight it was Piccard who saw the possibilitiesin the new thermal balloons. When you talk to Don you can hear in his voice the joy anddelight that ballooning gives us all.

My first contact with Don was in 1983 soon after taking over as editor of Pilot News(today known as Skylines), the monthly newsletter of the Balloon Federation of America.He was my predecessor, fired from the volunteer position for too much openness anddebate. Debate he thought would make for a better and richer sport.

Piccard has been a champion of ballooning for more than 50 years. He continues tobe active in ballooning with his recent design of the Pleiades Seven, his contributions tothis publication, and sharing his vast wealth of knowledge answering questions on theInternet.

Don Piccard - 50 Years in Ballooning. The journey begins on page 26.

26Balloon Life, July 1997

Don Piccard’s list offirsts is impressive -and almost endless.Piccard made thefirst post-WorldWar II free flight in

1947, with a captured Japanese Fu-Gos; asmall, hydrogen-filled paper balloon. In1948, he organized the first balloon clubin the United States; the Balloon Club ofAmerica. In 1957 he flew in the firstplastic gas balloon, the Pleiades. The Ple-iades, his design (based on his father’sidea), is also a first as it consists of not oneenvelope, but a cluster of seven; just likethe famed Seven Sisters of Greek mythol-ogy.

What else? Piccard did some of thefirst work in using laminated Mylar forsuperpressure balloon envelopes. In the1960s, he was instrumental in getting hot-air ballooning recognized as a serioussport when he organized the first balloonraces. And in 1963, along with Ed Yost,Don Piccard was the first to fly the En-glish Channel in a hot-air balloon. Thefirst hot-air balloons sold in Europe andSouth Africa were built by Piccard’s com-pany and a Piccard-manufactured bal-loon, Red Dragon, was one of the firstthree that launched hot-air ballooning as asport in England.

Taken as a whole, Don Piccard’saccomplishments are awe-inspiring. Notbad for a guy who flunked calculus (orCalc-useless as it is also known) twiceand, like Ed Yost and Tracy Barnes, nevergraduated from college!

Don Piccard-50 Yearsof Ballooning Memories

by Peter Stekelphotographs courtesy ofDon Piccard

Don Piccard lifting off from Minneapo-lis, Minnesota February 16, 1947.

27Balloon Life, July 1997

1934, surpassing brother Auguste’s 27May 1931 record of 51,762 feet (15.781kilometers).

To understand the importance ofthese accomplishments, you must realizethat previous ascents had shown that fly-ing into the stratosphere could be fatal andthat to penetrate the isothermal layer, withits low pressure, a new kind of balloonwould have to be built. Auguste Piccardbuilt such a balloon in 1930, equippedwith a pressurized, air-tight cabin and anenvelope large enough and with sufficientascent strength that, on departure, it neednot be completely filled. This importantfeature is explained by the Universal GasLaw. As a balloon rises into the atmo-sphere, gases within the envelope willexpand, increasing pressure, as the atmo-spheric pressure outside decreases.

Other innovations from the twinbrothers included a frost-resistant win-dow for high altitude balloon gondolasand an electronic system for emptyingballast bags designed by Jean-Felix. Jean-Felix also experimented with plastic bal-loons and helped design the polyethyleneSkyhook series of high altitude balloonsthat the United States Air Force used formanned flights. The Skyhooks rose toover 100,000 feet to collect upper atmo-spheric weather data.

Auguste Piccard developed the bathy-scaphe for exploring the deeper oceanreaches where intense water pressure cre-ates massive design problems. So, youmight say that firsts run in the Piccardfamily.

First FlightsYou might also say that the shape and

form of hot-air ballooning today is a di-rect result of Don Piccard’s energy, en-thusiasm, and vision. It all began, 50 yearsago, in 1947 with a flight in a capturedJapanese paper balloon, the Fu-Gos. Inci-dentally, the paper used came from theMulberry tree, famed as the preferredhaunt of the silk worm.

During World War II, the Japanesemilitary had the idea of loading 5-15 kg ofexplosives onto cheap, mass-produced,hydrogen balloons and then setting themfree to wander the friendly skies. The planwas that wherever they touched downalong the west coast of America, theywould explode; a terrorist’s dream.

Of the 9000 or so Fu-Gos launched

between November 1944 and March 1945,285 balloons made recorded landfall,stretching from Alaska to Mexico. Sixdeaths and minimal damage occurred fromthe wayward wandering balloons that hadto cross over 6000 miles of ocean. It wasone of these errant 285 that Piccard usedfor his 1947 maiden solo flight. He hadspent 1944-46 as a balloon airship riggerfor the Navy and this gave him just enoughpractical experience to pull off the flight.It also sparked his interest in improvingballoon design.

As expensive as ballooning remainstoday, it was outrageously prohibitive in1947. Piccard, at the time a Minnesotaresident, was able to get the MinneapolisTimes to help sponsor the flight and buythe hydrogen. He recalls, “The ArmyReserve, the Air Force Reserve that is,gave me the aluminum to make the bas-ket. The University of Minnesota Medi-cal Laboratory helped me make the bas-ket. Acme Metal Spinning spun the alu-minum valve.” The Reserve Officer’sTraining Corps, another sponsor, hadPiccard fly in a uniform with speciallydesigned insignia. “They had just formedthe United States Air Force (USAF) a fewdays before,” so reservist Piccard mayhave been the first USAF pilot to make aflight.

Except that he wasn’t really a pilotyet. By the end of that flight though, twohours in the air and no written test, Piccardwas the first FAA certified balloon pilot.Not that the FAA had any idea of what todo with this new category. You see, therewasn’t much interest in ballooning backthen because either you couldn’t get aballoon or the hydrogen to fill it wasunobtainable. In France, Charles Dollfus,a renown gas balloonist from before theWar, was still practicing the art but sportballooning was non-existent anywhereelse and possessed as much future as anice cube in a blast furnace.

Before his 1947 solo flight, Piccardattempted to organize 15 ex-Navy pilotsinto a balloon club in Minneapolis. Herecalls the enthusiasm of the first meetingflagging when participants realized,“We’d have to build our own balloon; thatwe didn’t have anyone furnishing one forfree, and that we’d have to fly with hydro-gen because helium wasn’t available forsport balloonists.” Nobody showed up forthe club’s second meeting.

Early YearsOne of three children, Don Piccard

was born into ballooning. His parents,Jean-Felix and Jeannette Piccard wereballoonists and young Don made his firstflight in 1933 as a “crew member” for hismother. Jeannette Piccard was fortunateenough to have hooked up with an in-structor, Gordon Bennett-winner Ed Hill,who flew out of the Ford airport inDearborn, Michigan. Automobile-makerHenry Ford took an interest in the project,allowing use of his hanger, and becameinstrumental in that 1933 flight being asuccess. He also brought Orville Wrightaround and Piccard remembers that semi-nal occasion, “One of the great experi-ences of my life was to shake hands withOrville Wright. I was a little kid and hepayed attention to me. He was a very, verynice old man.”

Piccard tells the story of a test flighthis mother made with Ed Hill. It turnedinto something special, and exciting forJeannette Piccard. Remember, this was inthe hydrogen gas balloon days. They wereflying along when Hill valved out somegas and reduced ballast by unloading sand.“The balloon rounded out at tree top leveland they flew through the tops of appletrees.” Being springtime in Michigan, thetrees were in bloom. Hill leaned out overthe edge of the basket and came back withan apple blossom behind his ear and a biggrin plastered on his face, “Just the happi-est man alive.”

Piccard’s father, Jean-Felix, had beeninvolved as a balloonist during WorldWar I while serving in the Swiss Army.Piccard Pere taught his son the value ofsafety. Don Piccard remembers, “Every-thing he did, he was very, very cautious,”including playing with bears inYellowstone National Park back in 1916.“Everything I wanted to do,” no matterwhat, “he was with me, emphasizing thesafety aspects.” This safety awareness,instilled early in life, was to serve Piccardwell during his years as a balloon de-signer.

The older Piccard was initially achemist and explosive’s engineer for Her-cules Powder Company. He first flew forscientific purposes with his twin brother,Auguste, in 1913. Jean-Felix Piccard, fly-ing with his wife Jeannette, set a strato-spheric altitude record for the USA of57,037 feet (11 miles or 18 kilometers) in

28Balloon Life, July 1997

Clockwise from top let: Piccard in red jump suite with burner/blower on station wagontailgate. Piccard trailer in foreground. Holding back pressure against blower to getflame started; Piccard launching in aluminum “basket”; Willie Piccard, Don’s secondwife, launching from Indianola, Iowa, August, 1972 in A-1 helium Mylar balloon.Flight set a world record for duration; September, 1965 Reno, Nevada. Ed Yost in white“Taco” balloon in foreground, Don Kersten’s “Merope” white balloon in back-ground), a Semco pink and white balloon, and Lloyd Muma in a green and white balloonwith pointed top; Deke Sonnichsen’s first flight in his back yard with a Piccard AX-3;25 foot diameter 5 mil Mylar Scheldome; Piccard S/N 1 at Bermuda Dunes, California1965; (center) Raven S-40 deflation.

29Balloon Life, July 1997

His next flight, following the Fu-Gosballoon, was the next fall in a 35,000cubic foot war surplus balloon Piccardbought for $10 from Barney Frank in NewJersey. Frank had gotten his hands on a setof balloons and had been selling them tointerested parties. Evidently the balloonswere in great shape and, “Somebody didn’trealize they had been surveyed as unfit forflight and sold as war surplus!” Piccardchuckles over the memory. “We just putthem right back into service!”

Frank had picked up the balloons atauction a short time before. When thebidding first came in, several people sawthat they were advertised as “Free” bal-loons. So, they bid, “Free-ship it!” Even-tually, Piccard bid $10 for the lot, some-body else bid $10. The supply officer atthe auction was dismayed at the low bidsand said, “These balloons cost the navy$20,000 to build; I’m not going to let themgo for $10. All bids are canceled!” Piccardreplied, knowing that the balloons, nomatter what their condition, were uselessto the military, “Commander: how muchdo you get for your second hand toiletpaper?” The officer blew up and threwPiccard out of the auction. Finally, BarneyFrank bid $100 and got them all.

Since there was no such thing asnationwide organized sport ballooning inthose days, Piccard suspects one reasonthe Navy allowed the surplus balloons togo on the auction block was tradition. Thecustom before World War II, as also prac-ticed in Europe, was to allow civilians

who were interested in ballooning to pickup extra military balloons at pennies onthe dollar. “I think there was an under-standing,” between the Navy and BarneyFrank, “that they would sell him the bal-loons at his bid if he would let half of themgo to sport balloonists to further aeronau-tics in the country in the national interest.”

As Piccard recalls, “I don’t knowanyone in this country who bought a newsport balloon after World War II.” All thepilots flew war-surplus craft. Those$20,000 balloons would, “probably cost$200,000 in today’s money, which is ab-solutely impossible.”

One club, in Cleveland, was some-what organized before the War. They hadended up with the old Detroit BalloonClub balloons. “The Cleveland BalloonClub had flown off to war and left all theirballoons with one of their student pilots.”The student pilot’s wife didn’t like bal-loons and she gave all of them and all theirequipment to the Salvation Army to haulaway except for one 80,000 cubic foot net.As Piccard tells the story, “The studentpilot figured, even though his wife madehim get rid of the balloons, he would beable to use the net as household twine.” Sohe saved the net and then five years later,in 1950, when Piccard got in the news,this student pilot contacted him and of-fered to give him the net, just to get it outof his garage. Piccard jumped at the chanceto get another ex-pilot, even a student ex-pilot, involved again in ballooning andreplied, “I don’t want the net; I want you.”

Back in September of 1947, Piccardwas living in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania,“hanging out with the guys at Lakehurst,”and got his hands on a 35,000 cubic footwar surplus Navy gas balloon. For fuel, heused coal gas and was able to fly threepeople. In telling this story, fifty yearslater, Piccard reaches for his log book andreads, “We took off at eight o’clock in themorning... landing at a little after noon...Pleasant Valley, Pennsylvania... no men-tion of how much ballast I had... just threepeople.” He pauses and muses for a mo-ment. “But it must have been a lot. Youcould get a lot of lift with coal gas!”

As an aside, it is interesting to notethat Don Piccard’s flight log books arewonderfully replete with details. He notonly includes his time of departure andarrival, he lists his companions, weatherconditions, specifics about fuel, ballast,

balloon design, and a host of other infor-mation that helps serve his memory andprovide a living history of ballooningover the past five decades.

In 1947, the world had only recentlyemerged from six years of destruction andwas on the verge of entering the deepfreeze that Winston Churchill termed the“Cold War.” Espionage and national se-curity were to become hugely importantand newer methods of spying on othercountries were in the offing. Somebody,with creative thoughts, was turning mindsto high altitude airplanes with fine opticalequipment. But other minds were think-ing of how gas balloons might be used forsurveillance and, secondarily, recordingweather data. The only problem was thatballoon technology could not support whatpeople wanted to do with balloons.

So, where did Don Piccard see his lifegoing in 1947? He had dropped out ofcollege and was working in sales andbuilding construction. “I thought I’d endup being a developer of some sort.” Hehad some good friends who were involvedwith real estate developing and buildingand Piccard thought he’d hook up withthem. Instead, he eventually found him-self working with materials that wouldone day enable the Cold Warriors to liveout their dream of high flying balloons.

Forms Balloon Club of AmericaIn 1948 Don Piccard teamed up with

Peter Wood and some others inSwarthmore, including, finally, Tony Fair-banks, to form the Balloon Club of

Don Piccard soon after liftoff, February16, 1947 in a Japanese made paper bal-loon.

Piccard’s landing at White Bear Lake,MN February 16, 1947.

30Balloon Life, July 1997

America. Douglas Leigh secured elevensurplus envelopes from the Army lighter-than-air program and Piccard managed toget possession. There BCA stood. Fromthe eleven balloons they constructed one80,000 cubic foot air-worthy balloon andflew it 29 November 1952, making a fourhour flight from Swarthmore toHammonton, New Jersey. After that, theywould fly three or four times a year andgarner all sorts of front page news due tothe novelty of seeing a balloon over adowntown metropolitan area. But, itawaited the innovation of hot-air balloon-ing before the sport could take off.

After a stint in the service during theKorean conflict, Piccard ended up work-ing for All American Engineering, inDelaware, doing air pick-up work. In thosedays, little towns without airports wouldset their mail out on a pole and smallplanes would swoop down and snag thebag and then fly away, dropping off theother mail by parachute. “If you’ve seenthe movie, The Green Berets, where theycome out of the jungle and pick up a man;that’s the kind of work All American wasdoing,” Piccard remembers. He workedon making their mobile airship mooringmast systems a bit more efficient andsafer and got his first patent.

Around this time, Ed Yost was work-ing for the General Mills company onhigh altitude gas balloons to be used forespionage and scientific projects. Hot-airballoons at the time were smokey circuscuriosities and not very functional due tothe lack of a means to generate and con-

tain the hot air. Yost’s balloons weremade of a synthetic, polyethylene, whichwas heat-welded to a certain shape. Yostattached a plumber’s blowtorch to an 8000cubic foot polyethylene envelope and, in1953, he flew it. Within a few weeks, hehad built a 27,000 cubic foot model thatcould easily carry a man. Hot-air balloon-ing had finally left the ground.

Begins Work at SchjeldahlReferring to his logbook, Piccard re-

members the 18th of September, 1957,when he flew the first plastic Pleiades(based upon a design of his father’s, Jean-Felix Piccard) from Valley Forge to SpringGarden Pennsylvania. “That got me acouple of pages in Life Magazine and thatgot me the job at Schjeldahl.” The originalarticle was going to be a five page spreadbut events in Little Rock, Arkansas, withGovernor Orval Faubus going up againstthe federal government on school integra-tion, resulted in the balloon flight storybeing shortened to two pages with a singlecolor photo; no mean feat during the dayswhen Life Magazine was a mover andshaker. Gas and materials for that flightcost Don Piccard $800.

Gilmore Schjeldahl was an indepen-dent bag maker who started working withMylar while everybody else still usedpolyethylene. “I knew that Schjeldahlsubscribed to Life Magazine and that hewas impressed by Life. So when I wasready to make my Pleiades flight, I gaveLife an exclusive on it, just so that I couldget good coverage,” with the certaintythat Schjeldahl would see it. After thePleiades flight, Piccard met Schjeldahl inWashington DC and they stayed up thewhole night, “talking about what quartermil Mylar could do in a high altitudeflight.”

At the beginning of 1958, Piccardmoved to Minnesota to work forSchjeldahl. Knowing he couldn’t get a jobwith General Mills and that Raven wasn’tinterested in him at the time, “Schjeldahlseemed like the place.” Schjeldahl, him-self, “seemed like a very bright man.”

His primary work with Schjeldahlwas in research and development, making“Bubble Houses.” These were air sup-ported buildings such as greenhouses orswimming pool enclosures. During thattime, Piccard got the basic patent on cy-lindrical air supported buildings. “That’s

one of my best patents,” he says happily.“That was really fun: Uniaxial stress skinstructures.” He finally developed an eco-nomical air inflated structure that was soeconomical that there was absolutely noprofit potential in manufacturing it. Withno proprietary patents or processes indanger, Piccard advocated shutting downthe project.

From there Piccard moved on to thesuperpressure balloon program atSchjeldahl but it was shortly terminatedbecause, “it wasn’t going anywhere.”Mathematically it should have worked,but they were having no luck with it at thetime. It would be over another decadebefore superpressure balloons would beable to live up to their potential.

The theory of a superpressure bal-loon is simple. A relatively small volumeof helium fills the total envelope but as theballoon rises, the gas expands. Gradually,the entire bag is filled, displacing atmo-spheric air and continuing to lift the pay-load. When float altitude is achieved, ex-cess gas is vented to avoid continual stresson the super light-weight fabric of theenvelope.

The continuing problem with super-pressure balloons is that they have anextremely limited flight duration. Thisoccurs because incoming solar radiationduring the day expands the gas, with aresultant loss through the vents. At night,the gas contracts and the balloon sinks.

Piccard launch in Raven S-40 at the firstSt. Paul Winter Carnival balloon race.

First plastic Pleiades cell.

31Balloon Life, July 1997

apart. Coincidentally, John Piccard, Don’sbrother, designed the machine that wasused to make the Mylar!

They went ahead, using the lami-nated material, and had the first success-ful superpressure balloon design based onthat concept. This unleashed a flurry ofballoon designs using laminated Mylarfor trans-Atlantic balloon flights and forhigh-altitude research.

To this day, Piccard isn’t sure that aMylar superpressure balloon would be agood, general, all-purpose balloon. “It’sreally on the edge. There is no room forerror. It’s not really viable.”

Continuing at Schjeldahl with hissuccessful applications with Mylar lami-nations, Piccard designed Mylar dia-phragms for the Polaris missile. Whilethat was going on, Ed Yost had made his

successful flight with a hot-air balloonand Piccard said, “That’s where I want tobe!”

Joins Raven and BeginsPromoting Sport Ballooning

Raven Industries hired Don Piccardto manage their nascent sport balloonprogram. “They had no idea of what to dowith a sport balloon,” he says emphati-

cally. “They had noknowledge of what todo with it.” But, “Ihad design responsi-bilities,” he recalls,and after flying theirMittlestadt balloon, “Iset about designing aversion that would becloser to the balloonYost had built for thegovernment.” At thehelm of Raven, Yostwas being financed bythe Office of NavelResearch on top-se-cret hush-hushprojects.

During his yearsat Raven, between1962 and 1964,Piccard devoted hisenergy to marketingthe Vulcoon, one-manthermal balloons.Stressing his lack ofsecurity clearance atthe time, Piccard sayshe worked strictly onsport balloons and hadno contact with anyof Raven’s militarycontracts. Be that as itmay, following a 1987interview in BalloonLife with Don Piccard,where he describedhis civilian work with

Raven, the CIA library in Langley, Vir-ginia, began to subscribe to the magazine.

At this time, Piccard also concen-trated on making contacts in the aviationfield and in organizing the first modernMontgolfier-style balloon races. The racesbrought the fledgling sport more attentionand interest and Piccard can rightly boastthat, “If I have done anything, it is to makethe sport of ballooning a sport that people

Still, a superpressure balloon of 10 mil-lion cubic feet can carry a ton or more ofequipment over 30 miles high and do it farmore reliably and economically than con-ventional satellites. And at roughly 60pounds of lift per 1000 cubic feet of enve-lope, gas balloons deliver three times asmuch lift per volume than hot-air bal-loons.

“I think part of the reason I got tohandle the job of thesuperpressure balloonwas that the contract-ing fellow from Cam-bridge enjoyed todrink too much. DickSlater, a goodLutheran teetotaler,didn’t like to handlethat guy.” Ironically,when some of thepeople overseeing theproject came to visitPiccard to see how hewas doing, he tookthem to a local tavernwhere an air sup-ported building hadbeen step up over theoutdoor drinking gar-den. “See thatbubble?” Piccardbragged. “They throwbroken beer bottles atit and it holds up.”The government teamwas impressed andwanted to know thesecret.

The answer to themystery was simple:laminated Mylar.Piccard had discov-ered that single layerMylar would wrinkleand was so stiff that itdamaged itself.“When you take twothin layers of Mylar and laminate themtogether with a self-adhesive betweenthem, they tend to feel more like leatherthan like sheet metal and it isn’t self-destructive.” His idea was to make a su-perpressure balloon, not out of one mil ortwo mil Mylar, but out of two thin layersof half mil Mylar, laminated together.That way the material would be flexibleand the envelope wouldn’t break itself

Piccards (right) and Johnsons with four foot diameter gondola and LOX converterfor Golden Bear flight. Johnsons spun gondola—father spun for Jean Piccard’sStratolab gondola and son spun for Don’s record flight.

32Balloon Life, July 1997

Clockwise from top left: Piccard balloonwith a “chimney” skirt; Piccard (left) inJapanese fur flight suit prior to altituderecord flight of 34,462 feet in 1961. Flightsuit and aluminum gondola both used onFebruary 16, 1947 flight; Piccard stand-ing next to his “body helmet” designgondola; modern Pleiades gas cell;Piccard ascending on altitude recordflight 1961 using Schjeldahl S-10 Mylarlaminate balloon. American flag used byhis mother, Jeannette from her altitudeflight in 1930s; “Spirit of Seventy Six”Piccard 105, March, 1972; (center) newPiccard top in operation.

33Balloon Life, July 1997

can get into and enjoy without restric-tions.”

Ballooning’s early days not only re-quired a lot of money, it also compelledpilots to circulate in different social circles.Ballooning was a dirty sport; a “filthybusiness,” Piccard remembers. Profession-als: stockbrokers, doctors, politicians, oranybody in the public eye, wouldn’t getinvolved in the sport because every flightwas such a cause celebre that the newspa-pers came out and, “You’d get your pic-ture in the papers.” Nobody wanted that.

It was even worse with hot-air bal-looning. “Wally Soley used to say that inthe old days they wouldn’t let him checkinto a hotel until they sent a bellboy up totake the sheets off the bed!” Who can sayif this was because hoteliers were afraidthe pilots would steal the sheets to repairthe balloon or because, “The sheets wouldbe worthless because they’d be soakedwith India ink!” India ink is carbon sootand water and, “A smoke balloonist’sbody sweat was India ink: indelible, dirty,grimy.” In summing up his early work inpopularizing the sport, Piccard says, “It’shard for any balloonist today to compre-hend the general public’s attitude towardsballoonist during those days and that’swhat I had to change.”

One major way the public’s attitudeabout ballooning changed in 1962 wasfrom Don Piccard’s first organized bal-loon race. It was 28 January, the birthdayof Jean-Felix Piccard!

In the old days, the real old days,balloon races were more social than com-petitive. That all changed on 30 Septem-ber 1906 when newspaperman, JamesGordon Bennett jr., got involved. Bennettwas the kind of newspaper owner andpromoter who could go through moneylike grease through a goose. He supportedmotor races (boats and cars), sponsoredtennis tournaments, introduced polo tothe USA, and in 1871 had sent HenryMorton Stanley to find explorer Dr. DavidLivingston at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika incentral Africa. The Gordon Bennett racebecame the first international balloonevent, the winner being the pilot whocould travel the furthest. Distance wasmeasured from start-to-finish in a straightline.

That first race reportedly drew250,000 enthralled spectators at the lift-off in Paris. Sixteen pilots entered the race

and the winner, Frank Lahm, from theUSA, traveled 395 miles in 22.5 hours.Over the next 33 years, the Gordon Bennettrace was held 26 times until the invasionof Poland, September 1939, stopped theevent.

To give Piccard’s first race credibil-ity, he didn’t want it to happen unless hecould get a respected organization to hostit. “The St. Paul Winter Carnival said OK,as long it didn’t cost them anything.”Next, “I went out and got sponsors and gotthe money and I went out and bought aSterling Silver Revere Ware Bowl as thetrophy. I wanted to give this thing theattitude of Sir Thomas Lipton (famouspromoter of sailboat races); an event ofClass so the newspapers would take it asa serious gentleman’s sport. And itworked! They opened their jaws whenthey saw a Sterling Silver Revere WareBowl, over a foot in diameter, for a tro-phy.”

It was the first National AeronauticAssociation and Fédération AéronauticInternationale sanctioned hot air balloonrace. “I suppose it was the first hot-airballoon race too.”

There were only four entrants. DonPiccard flew in a civilian balloon DickKeuser had an old brown silicon hot-airballoon that had been built for a researchprogram. Yost flew a Mylar-nylon CIAballoon, and Tracy Barnes had a home-made balloon made out of parachutes.The last participant, Keuser “barely gotairborne, went a few feet south and thenlanded.” The winner was Tracy Barnes.

Piccard calls this first race, the JeanPiccard Trophy for Thermal Balloons,one his biggest highlights in life. “Beforethat, people would say they’d rather be aFuller Brush or used car salesman,” thana hot-air balloon pilot. This race, “changedballooning from a carnival stunt and awacko deal to a competitive sport.” ThePiccard Trophy was last held in 1971 andBert and Judy Bigelow were the winners.

Reflecting back to those days atRaven, Piccard thinks the company’s sportballoon division was a cover-up for themilitary applications of ballooning. “Thesport balloon program, which was notbelieved in by the Raven Industry man-agement, was strictly getting this crazyguy who liked to fly in balloons and makecover. So, when one of these other bal-loons went down, it would just look like a

sport balloonist.” When the Navy termi-nated its contract with Raven, the sportballoon program died too. That was inDecember of 1964.

Crossing the ChannelPiccard had one last big fling with

Raven: a 1963 flight across the EnglishChannel in a hot-air balloon with Ed Yost.

Crossing the Channel was one of thefirst balloon adventures and it continuesto excite and challenge pilots. In 1963, theflight had been made only once from eastto west. It was during the inaugural 1906Gordon Bennett race when Frank Lahmflew from Paris to Whitby, in Yorkshire.Due to wind currents, the preferred routehas always begun from the Dover side.

Obviously, flying over open water isnot a cake walk. Sea “breezes,” (a.k.a. on-shore and off-shore winds) are actuallymoving masses of air up to 500 feet thick.They can accelerate prevailing winds inthe same direction or cause decelerationand turbulence when they collide together.Sea “breezes” are strong enough to feellike you’re hitting a brick wall and cancrush balloons, yet an experienced pilotcan use the “breeze” to make 180 degreeturns.

Another consideration when flyingover open water is what to do if you haveto ditch. Water is cold, beside being wet,and total immersion can easily lead tohypothermia and death. An extra intimi-dating facet of crossing the English Chan-nel, and all other large bodies of water, isthat the pilot lacks any sense of speedsince there are no visual clues to guideyou. For this reason it is easy to think youare standing still. Easy, that is, until yousight land and the feelings of being be-calmed are replaced with feelings of be-ing slammed into the land.

Compounding the regular problemsof open water crossings is the problem ofChannel geography. Though England andFrance at their closest are a scant 20 milesapart in an east-west direction, the windssail up channel north-south. Even whenaeronauts wait for the most favorablewinds, a slight change in direction can bedisastrous, blowing balloons far off-course. So, when Piccard and Yost climbedinto their gondola in 1963, they weretaking an awfully big chance, one thatmany had not attempted up to that time.

Don Piccard remembers it this way.

34Balloon Life, July 1997

across and the water’s awfully cold. So Ipulled the rip cord and landed it. Didn’teven get over the Channel. Barbara Keithflew high and never got to the coast.Eventually, she landed in the ocean anddied of exposure.” Sadly, he comments,“She and Yost and I were the only oneswith decent Mae Wests.”

The original plan was to leaveCatalina and whoever got the closest tothe mainland would be called the winner.“The NAA said that to be sanctioned, itdidn’t matter if you landed in the water,but the goal has to be the first person to getacross, wins. Yost brought in a big bal-loon, and I brought in a big balloon, andthere were some others, so it was possibleto get across.”

Since the plan was originally to takeoff and then land in the channel, pilots haddone practice landings in water with boatspicking them up. “But I think that contrib-uting to Barbara Keith’s death was thatthe NAA demanded it be a flight to themainland, rather than who could get clos-est.” That made it sound like you actuallycould get to the mainland, which she couldnever do.”

Due to poor weather, the NAA offi-cials involved didn’t come out to the Is-land the day before or the day of the raceeither. “So there was no NAA officialthere to be in control of anything. Theperson who was supposed to pick up Bar-bara Keith quit. She was just out there,with no one knowing she was out there,without a chase group. There was nobodyleft in charge. Higbie didn’t know; he wasout there flying the race.” Barbara Keithwas flying over the ocean and there wasonly one person supposed to pick her up,a yachtsman by the name of Jack Watts.At this point Piccard’s voice gets awfullylow and a trace of bitterness comes in. “Sothere was nobody chasing her and shedied.”

That was the first fatality in modernhot air ballooning.

Soon thereafter, Piccard left Raven.He had been pressuring the Raven man-agement to move its base of operationsfrom Sioux Falls, North Dakota, to thesunny climes of southern California. “Itseemed like the logical spot to set upshop.” He says, today, tongue-in-cheek,“They thought there was something sus-picious in someone who wanted to leaveSioux Falls in the middle of winter and

move to California!” In the autumn of1964, the CIA had canceled their contractwith Raven and the company evidentlysaw no reason to continue their sportballoon division so Piccard was out of ajob. When that happened, he figured,“Why not?” and made the move to theSunshine State.

Hard Times in Sunny SouthernCalifornia

At the time of Piccard’s move, MarkSemich was already making balloons forthe civilian market. Shortly after Piccardarrived, Semich moved to Idaho and leftthe southern California field wide open.However, Semich continued his balloondesigning and by 1970, his Semco Bal-loons would be carrying MalcolmBrighton and two others in a hot-air andhelium balloon hybrid that disappeared ina storm off Newfoundland, thirty hoursinto a west to east traverse of the AtlanticOcean.

What followed for Piccard after hisrelocation were some instantaneous hardtimes. “When I moved out to California, Ihad a certain grubstake and financial sup-port,” he recalls. That grubstake was asmall amount of cash from an insurancesettlement when he’d totaled his car inMinnesota. “When that was used up, Iwould be out of the balloon business.”Taking the cash, he fixed the car, droveout to California, and found a place to liveat a friend of his father’s.

Piccard set up shop. He found thetechnical people to sew nylon for enve-lopes and make his baskets and burners tohis specifications.

The day finally came when Piccardwas down to his last two dollars. “Thatmorning I said to myself that when I wentto lunch, that would be it; I’d be out of theballoon business and would just have toquit.”

With that certain elan that comesfrom serendipity, the morning mailbrought a $1000 check from Dale Gates.Gates, from the Cleveland Parachute Clubhad been in contact with Raven, trying topurchase a hot-air balloon. “Raven saidwe aren’t making them any more but ifyou contact Don Piccard in NewportBeach, California...” The rest, as they say,is history. From that moment on, DonPiccard Balloons had a back log of orders.

Jack O’Neil bought Piccard balloon

“It was Dollfus’s idea. He got the spon-sors.” Piccard had flown with CharlesDollfus in 1950 and, “He knew my fam-ily.” Over the years they corresponded.“He believed in the sport of ballooning.When it had been demonstrated that a hot-air balloon could stay up for a couple ofhours, he said, ‘Can you fly 20 miles?’Sure.” Dollfus believed, as pilots beforehim, that crossing the English Channelwas the mark of having arrived. “It’s a riteof passage.”

Piccard was going to do the flight inan S 45 with four tanks. Plans changed.“Suddenly it became a 50 foot balloonand a two man job and the Vice-presidentof the company is going to come along.”An Air Force tanker flew Piccard andYost from Milwaukee to England,“Loaded everything on board and awaywe did go!” The two balloonists weredesignated, “Majors in the WisconsinNational Guard: uniforms, I.D. cards;everything.” He pauses and chucklessoftly. “All in the national interest, ofcourse.”

To hear Piccard talk about it, theEaster Monday crossing was nothing. “So,we end up in England, fly the Channel;they pick us up in Orley [airport, Paris,France] and fly us back.” On the returnflight, “We never hit five thousand feet allthe way from Orley to General MitchellField in Milwaukee, across Greenlandand northern Canada. Non-stop from Paristo Wisconsin. A hell of a flight.”

Calamity followed soon after duringa race across the Catalina Channel off thecoast of Los Angeles, California.

“Richard Higbie arranged for theCatalina Channel Balloon Race.” Piccardbrought down the S 45, which had beenset up for the English Channel and Yostbrought the S 50 which had done theChannel. Barbara Keith brought an S 40.“Made a new S 50 for [Frank] Tallmanand [Cliff] Robertson and Semich madetwo or three balloons.”

In his own words, Piccard outlinesthe tragic finality to this race. “The windswere such that you had to fly low to get tothe coast. Yost flew low and he got to thecoast. I flew low and hit a tree on thelaunch field. Just brushed it but it tore theballoon from the nozzle of the balloon allthe way to the rip panel; one vertical slitall the way up. I had four tanks and Ilooked at that and thought, it’s a long way

35Balloon Life, July 1997

number one, actually a ship that Piccardhad made for himself. Number two, “wentto some guy in France,” but it was Num-ber Three, the one that Dale Gates bought,that can be said to be responsible for allthat has happened in ballooning ever since.For, without that sale, ballooning wouldnot have achieved the popularity it nowenjoys because Don Piccard would havegone out of business and left the sport.

Early Success Lead to LaterTriumphs

By 1972 Piccard had incorporatedand stepped back in order to let others runthe company. “Portis Woolley and RayGallagher were the active participants withmoney from Don Williamson and LeeSmith. It was a Texas corporation, but thesame premises were kept in NewportBeach.” In 1975, Piccard bought back allthe stock.

Then, in 1980, he licensed GeneralBalloon corporation to make Piccard Bal-loons. That lasted a short time. “Theybecame involved in the movie, Dune;they made the worm. That was a morelucrative market and they got out of bal-loons entirely.”

In 1985, he sold his two type certifi-cates to Sidney and Elenor Conn, whoformed Galaxy Balloons. They also ownThe Balloon Works. Type certificates areissued by the FAA and are used to deter-mine the airworthiness of a flying craft.The certifications allow a manufacturer tomake repetitive models based upon theinitial design and they covers the entireflying system, including testing the burner,drop testing baskets, etc.

Most countries require that a balloonmanufacturer submit their product to theo-retical and practical approval to insure thedesigns are airworthy. Hence, a type cer-tificate is a valuable piece of paper, al-most like a patent is to an invention or acopyright to an author’s work. Given thisbackground, it is easy to understand whya type certificate for a Piccard balloon wassomething to own. Piccard built a productwhich was well respected in the sport.Pilots have always known that Piccardfabric wore like iron and lasted forever.

At the Dunstable Gliding Club in1966, the Red Dragon, a Piccard balloon,helped begin the sport of ballooning inGreat Britain and the superiority of thePiccard envelope quickly established his

balloons as the best in the field.

What Makes Piccard Balloonsso Great

A summary of Piccard Balloons de-signs would be instructive. Piccard is fa-mous for inventing the concept of thedistributed skin load pattern utilizing lobu-lar gores. Piccard’s idea of the quick shut-off on the burner itself, so you don’t haveany burn down of the coils, was alsoinnovative and highlighted his designphilosophy of safety which he inheritedfrom his father. When you shut off theburner, it is off. All the fuel in the coilsdrops back into the tanks.

The top, the lobular gore, of his bal-loons is lightweight, long-life fabric madeof non-conductive materials. In the lateseventies, Piccard developed what is nowcalled a “body helmet.” It’s non-conduc-tive, fire retardant, energy absorbing ABSor Kuidek, a material with a high dielec-tric constant. Kuidek also has a low tem-perature invertiment, possesses fire retar-dant characteristics acceptable to the FAAfor aircraft interiors. For the terminallyhip and trendy, Kuidek also comes in avariety of colors.

All these ideas can be traced back toJean-Felix and his emphasis on safety.Another safety issue Don Piccard hasadvanced is the idea of not using alumi-num fuel tanks. “When aluminum is in-volved in a fire,” he says, “it softensbefore the blow-off valve can blow off,resulting in an explosion of the aluminumtanks where steel tanks do not.” He’scome up with other little safety featurestoo, details that have been apparent andconspicuous in their absence, he says, inballoons offered to the public. “It is appar-ent by technology that everyone should bedoing these things and they’re not yet. Sothat’s the philosophy. It will not be acheap balloon.” He adds, “I will not useany names, but I have been terribly disap-pointed with what has been offered thenewcomers to this sport.”

With ample success, Don Piccard hasnot had ample time to rest on his laurels.He’s still designing and flying balloonsand in the mid-eighties worked on theenvelope for the Solo System UltralightBalloon.

Solo Systems started “after I was outof California,” recalls Piccard. He wasn’tbuilding any balloons at that time because

of product liability. “It’s just not respon-sible to do something like that withoutcoverage; to protect your customers.” DickRoberts, who’d owned Piccard Balloonsfor a couple of years, wanted to make asmall balloon. “He approached me andasked if I’d make envelopes for it.” Piccardagreed and off they went.

Solo Systems was an innovation, notonly in design, but also in what it allowedballoon enthusiasts to do: fly without apilot’s license.

Why do Sport Balloonists Need aPilot’s License?

Why do sport balloonists need apilot’s license? “To keep people out of thesport,” of course, if you ask Don Piccard.

This is about the only subject thatseems to make Don Piccard cranky. He’sseen advertisements: “Get a private pilotslicense for $1500,” and it burns him up.“What do you need it for? Why do youneed a pilots license for a balloon? Do youneed a license to run a 50 foot motorboator sailboat?”

For years the FAA would give peoplea private pilot’s license, “just for signingup.” That way, if you ever screwed up,“they could take it away from you.” Hesees it as a waste of time, money, andeffort for the federal government to re-quire licenses for sport balloons. “Youcan ride a 2000 pound horse down thestreet without a license. You can ride abicycle without a license. You can take asailboat, or powerboat with 1000 horse-power; you don’t need a license.” In dis-gust, he spits out, “Why should a wickerbasket with a nylon bag need a pilot’slicense?”

Piccard wonders how balloons canfall under the purview of the FAA. “What’sthe FAA mean? Federal Aviation Admin-istration? What’s aviation? Does it haveanything to do with balloons? Balloonsare part of aviation?” he asks, incredu-lously and then concludes, “Not in mydictionary.” The FAA may have its owndefinition, but the Webster’s New WorldDictionary, second college edition, de-fines “aviation” as, the art or science offlying airplanes; the development andoperation of heavier-than-air craft, in-cluding airplanes or piloted or guidedrockets ships. So, Don Piccard has done hishomework and has a good point to make.

He does grant, though, that since theFAA regulates radio towers, that, maybe,

36Balloon Life, July 1997

balloons should be controlled by the FAA in the same manner as14 CFR Part 103, ultralight aircraft, of the FAA.

Is there a time when balloon pilots should be required topossess a license? Sure there is: when they are not sport balloon-ists but when they are flying commercially.

Balloon charter flights tweak Piccard’s nose. “I don’t thinkthese rides, packing 10 to 15 people in a balloon for a one hourride is the sport of ballooning. And I don’t think it does very muchfor the sport of ballooning either. I haven’t heard of a lot of peoplewho do these charter flights coming back to the ground to buytheir own balloons and start flying.”

Piccard explains his feelings this way. “Back in the old days,when a guy with an AX 7 or something took two people for a ride,he would sell them on the sport and they’d buy a balloon. But Idon’t think you see many of the people who get in these cattle carscome back down and buy a balloon and start going into the sport.I don’t think it’s sport ballooning,” he complains. “I’m notinterested in it.” He isn’t against it though and thinks it’s fine,“Just as horseback riding and sailboarding is fine.” He simplydoesn’t have an interest in commercial ride operations.”

Piccard loves the sport of ballooning and thinks it’s awonderful thing that should be available to people. “And I thinkPart 103 of the FAA rules and regulations should permit multipleballoons and have a limit of 1000 and not a 150 pounds.” Heconcludes that, “As long as the balloon is being used for sport andnot for commercial hire, it should not concern the FAA.” If it’ssafety they are worried about, “That’s what the type certificatetakes care of.”

Contributions to Popularizing Sport BallooningOn his impressive list of first, perhaps Don Piccard’s largest

contribution is to popularizing the sport of ballooning. The firstgreat increase in balloonists occurred in the 1970s when addi-tional manufacturers got involved in the business. “I think it wasimportant when Tracy Barnes offered his balloon at a super-lowprice,” says Piccard. “It was a big move,” because, “Each personthat had a balloon was selling two or three balloons to hisneighbor over the course of a year.” This exponential growthcouldn’t last forever and, of course, it didn’t.

Why the bubble burst is anyone’s guess. One of Don Piccard’sguesses has to do with sailboats. Yes; sailboats. “There is a hellof a lot more sky than there is water,” he says. “I think we needmore valiant competition,” more on the order of, “An inspiration

such as the America’s Cup.” Valiant competition would revital-ize the sport of ballooning and put it on the order of other popularspectator sports.

The competitions should be skills oriented, Piccard believes.“The object of having a spot landing competition is to develop thesport, develop the skills, develop the equipment so that you canland your balloon where you want it.” Think about it. “The firstand most important thing is to be able to land your balloon, andthat means not landing in the middle of a tobacco patch orpowerline.” For competition, “Pilots should be able to land aballoon in a predetermined spot.”

Some kind of competition that includes such importantfunctions as getting the balloon inflated and launched needs to bedone. These basic tasks, Piccard believes, are “two of the mostimportant functions.” If you have competitive launching events,“People will tend to hone and improve their skill and manufac-turers will improve the design of their balloons.”

Another event he would like to see is an absolute distancerace over a set period of time. How far can you fly in an hour?You, the pilot, choose the day and time in order to maximizeflying conditions. “I think you would get better press, bettercredibility and would be doing some really legitimate events thatare really flying the balloon and not just working through a threeinch thick manual of regulations and protests.”

If you probe Don Piccard some more on this topic, he comesup with a story and analogy. “So many times I go out to a balloonrace and they say, ‘This is like the Indianapolis 500,’ and there isa stand where someone is selling tickets for four or five passen-gers in the balloon in the balloon race! Would Indianapolis be thesame if you were driving a station wagon with paying customersin it?”

What would he do about this to change it? “I think thatballoon racing would be different if it were solo.” In fact, that wasa motivating force behind his design of the Ultralight modelballoon. “I won’t fly in competition with a passenger,” Piccardmaintains, unless, “a competition requires a partner who is a co-pilot and doing navigating.”

Don Piccard was once asked about how he would describewhat ballooning was like. He replied with one word: “Unlike.”And these days, when it seems something can’t be a sport unlessit makes lots or noise and goes fast, one can’t help but wonder atthe truth of that single little word.

BALLOONMEISTER

Don Piccardby Tom Hamilton

Highlights1959 First solo in air-plane1978 Double Eagle IIAtlantic crossing1978 Balloon license1981 Double Eagle VPacific crossing1990-94 EarthwindsRTW projectUS CongressionalMedal for AviationAchievementFrench Medal for Avia-tion Achievement

Don Piccard’s involvement with lighter-than-air aviation began in 1933 when he flew in a gas balloon withhis mother, Jeannette Ridlon Piccard. Jeannette would

become the first woman to fly to the edge of space with astratospheric flight to 57,579 feet on October 23, 1934.

Piccard began his own aeronautic career in the U.S. Navy.During World War II he served as a balloon and airship riggerfrom 1944 to 1946. His practical experience allowed him to dosome free balloon instruction before he left the service.

In 1947, while attending the University of Minnesota, Piccardmanaged to procure a World War II Japanese FO-GOS typeballoon. These balloons, made from paper and silk, had been usedby the Japanese to send incendiary bombs across the Pacific.Piccard added a small basket to the balloon. With the aid of avolunteer ground crew he made a two hour solo flight fromdowntown Minneapolis. Why two hours? It had to be a two hourflight to receive a pilot’s certificate. With that flight Piccardbecame the first CAA licensed balloon pilot after World War IIand the only active licensed pilot in the U.S. at that time.

With the Coupe Gordon Bennett gas balloon race beingsuspended in 1939 there was little interest in ballooning, outsideof research, in the U.S. in the 1950s. Piccard lead the bandwagonto reinvigorate interest in ballooning. Piccard founded the Bal-loon Club of America, with only three other members. TonyFairbanks from Pennsylvania soon joined and brought in a fewmore members.

In 1951 Piccard contacted Douglas Leigh of Sky Advertis-ing in New York. Sky Advertising had purchased a large quantityof U.S. military surplus equipment, including several gas bal-loons. After long negotiations Piccard was able to take posses-sion of the balloons. The surplus equipment included parts ofsome eleven balloons. Together with Tony Fairbanks they as-sembled parts for one airworthy balloon. Piccard and Fairbanksmade the four hour maiden flight in the clubs “new” balloon onNovember 29, 1952.

The club would fly their balloon three or four times a year.Interest spread and the Balloon Flyers of Akron became thesecond balloon club in America. Together these two organiza-tions would form the Balloon Federation of America, today thenational organization for ballooning in America.

In the 1950’s Piccard worked for G.T. Schjeldahl Companywhich was involved with high altitude research balloons includ-ing the ECHO balloons.

Piccard began experimenting with balloon design. In 1957he flew a Pleiades-Type cluster balloon.

In 1960 he flew a Mylar envelope balloon.Piccard continued to push the limits of gas ballooning. In

1960 and 1961 he established new FAI altitude records in classA-1 (now AA-1) and A-4 (now AA-4) rising to 1,140 meters and10,504 meters respectively. In 1962 Piccard established a worldrecord in the A-2 (now AA-2) rising to a height of 5,409 meters.

In 1960 Piccard learned of the prototype work that Ed Yostat Raven Industries was conducting with a new thermal balloon.He saw the potential for sport ballooning that hot air had over gas.In a 1962 letter to Louis Casey of the National Air and SpaceMuseum Piccard described the potential for this new type ofballooning, “So, whether it is a quiet Sunday afternoon ‘picnic’flight or a full blown national race, here we have an economicallyand ideally suited sporting machine.”

Piccard joined Raven Industries in 1962 as manager of thesport balloon program. Quickly, Piccard started to promote hotair ballooning. He organized the first hot air balloon eventhosting three balloons had the St. Paul (MN) Winter Carnival in1962. In 1963 Piccard was “Clerk of Course” for the first U.S.National Hot Air Balloon Championship held in Kalamazoo,Michigan. The event was sanctioned by the National AeronauticAssociation.

In 1963 Piccard and Yost became the first to cross theEnglish Channel in a hot air balloon.

These events brought the fledging sport more attention andinterest.

When Raven’s interest in sport ballooning waned, Piccardstruck out on his own. He moved to Southern California and

Don Piccard continued on next page

Balloon Life, September 1998 37

In 1965 he flew a Piccard Balloon to a newAX-6 world altitude record of 4,782 meters. In1973 he set a new distance world record in categoryAX-3.

In the 1980s and 90s Piccard has been a con-sultant for new manufacturers. He worked closelywith Solo Systems in the 1980s to develop an ultra-light balloon. New innovations in the burner designand venting system has been adopted by othermanufacturers. The most notable is the redesign ofthe parachute top into a rapid deflation valve forfinal landing. The deflation system uses two linesto actuate the valve and to sleeve the parachute fordeflation. The process is reversible and does notrequire any additional operator assembly. Othermanufacturers are now developing their own de-signs based on Piccard’s concept. In innovation ofdesign and safety of flight this is the most signifi-cant develop in ballooning since the parachute topin the early 1970s.

Piccard holds numerous patents for ballooninnovations. He continues today through DonPiccard Balloons, Inc. to hold a U.S. Type Certifi-cate and still manufacturers balloons.

Piccard has been an active participant in bal-loon competitions. He first represented the Na-tional Aeronautic Association in balloon competi-tions in 1950 at the Andre Blitz Cup Race inEurope. He won the first Albuquerque BalloonFiesta (today the world’s largest hot air balloon

event) in 1972. He was a participant in the first postWorld War II Coupe Gordon Bennett gas balloonrace in 1979.

Piccard has made numerous first flights thathave advanced the state of the art of both gas andhot air ballooning. His flights using various sus-pension systems and technical advances have in-cluded paper balloons, Mylar, and polyethyleneballoons.

Piccard has made significant contributions tothe volume of information about ballooning. Heserved in the late 1970s and early 1980s as avolunteer editor for the Balloon Federation ofAmerica’s monthly newsletter to members. Todayhe is a contributing editor to Balloon Life maga-zine. In addition he is a frequent contributor oftechnical and historical information regarding bal-looning on the Internet. He is always ready toprovide insight and information to others.

Piccard has contributed time, money and arti-facts to the National Balloon Museum in Indianola,Iowa and to the Soukup & Thomas InternationalBalloon and Airship Museum in Mitchell, SouthDakota. He is currently working with the NationalBalloon Museum to create a wing to display hisextensive family collection on ballooning.

Piccard was award the FAI’s highest honor forballooning in 1962, the Montgolfier Diploma. Heis a former National Vice President of the NationalAeronautic Association.

Piccard is the dean of American ballooning.Over the past 51 years he has concentrated hisenthusiasm and energy in ballooning. He broughtback sport gas ballooning to the U.S. He graspedthe potential of hot air ballooning as sport aviation.It was his efforts which got the ball rolling for whatis today a growing segment of general aviation, amajor tourism attraction for the many communitiesthat host balloon events, sight-seeing excursionsprovided by balloon operators, commercial bill-board for companies, and for those who want to flyfor fun, the adventure of flight.

Don Piccard

Balloon Life, September 1998 38

opened Don Piccard Balloons, Inc. in 1964. Whenhe first arrived at Raven he made changes in thedesign of the original Vulcoon balloon. Now, withhis new company he was free to pursue innovationsthat would make hot air balloons safer. The use ofload tapes, Lobular gore design, lighter weightlong life fabric, non-conductive materials weresome of his early design features. The use of loadtapes in the design and construction of balloons isthe single greatest safety factor in hot air balloonhistory. All of these concepts are continued bytoday’s manufacturers.