Page 27 - Demo

Donald Piccard took his first balloon ride in 1933 at the age of two in a balloon piloted by his mother. During WWII and the Korean conflict he served as a balloon and airship rigger for the U. S. Navy. On February 16, 1947 he made a free flight using a captured Japanese Fu-Go balloon to earn his balloon pilot certification, and in 1948 he organized the Balloon Club of America.Using the same basket from the Jupiter II balloon he piloted in Lafayette, Piccard flew a gas balloon to a world record altitude of 34,642 feet on July 19, 1961. In 1963, he and Ed Yost became the first people to cross the English Channel in a hot-air balloon. That same year, he appeared as a %u201cMr. X%u201d guest on %u201cWhat%u2019s My Line.%u201d He died in St. Paul, Minnesota in 2020 at the age of 94.As a part of Lafayette%u2019s Operation Jupiter, Piccard carried 123 letters (and 23 other pieces of mail) aloft in Jupiter II,the same number that John Wise had flown 100 years earlier. Each had a cachet by the Lafayette Philatelic Society and was numbered and signed by the pilot.Cover flown by Donald Piccard aboard the Jupiter II on August 17, 1959.The Jupiter II%u2019s basket, now on display in the Smithsonian%u2019s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.