Rosthouse t1_isnj7hl wrote
Reply to comment by ramriot in TIL that Swiss Balloonist, Auguste Piccard, was the inspiration for both Professor Calculus, in the Tintin comics, and that Gene Roddenberry named Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek after him. by es_price
Bertrand Picard was the first to cirumnavigate the globe in a ballon (together with Brian Jones). In 2016 he finished the circumnavigation again in a solar powered plane.
His father, Jacques Picard (Son of August Picard) was actually the one diving to the challenger deep. There's a funny story that he used a swiss flag as his seat cushion, to later be able to claim that the swiss flag went deeper than the american flag.
Afterwards Jacques desigend the Mésoscaphe Auguste Piccard, which was the first submersible for tourists and was used at the National Exhibition 1964 in Lausanne.
gidneyandcloyd t1_istozx6 wrote
The family name is Piccard, not Picard. Nice article about them in the October 10, 2022 The New Yorker.
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