by Don Piccard
The trouble with books is that once printed an error goes on forever. (How many copies of "Bags Up" do you see that still have the errata slip with them. Without it you would believe that my father was drafted in WWI instead of volunteering, even though exempt from conscription. Both my brothers and my father were volunteers in uniform in WWII, too, and as you know from the [July] issue of Balloon Life, so was I. My cousin Jacques was a decorated Free French volunteer even though a Swiss national, so you can see why I would take exception to the false assumption by Stehling in Bags Up.)
The trouble with periodicals is that once an insignificant error is printed it must be corrected or it will be assumed to be a valid fact. "He who does not object, ratifies and concurs." So the nit-picking begins. You don't need to bother reading any further unless you are a historian or a perfectionist, but in honor of those Generals and Admirals that commit suicide over a misused service ribbon I will proceed.
Charlie Moore was the first man to free fly under a polyethylene bag, not me. In fact, of all the things I have flown, that is not one. And not one I would be likely yet to fly. There have been many successful single cell polyethylene ascensions, but there have been many others that have been fatal. Physicist Moore has more guts than I ever will have, not even mentioning his research balloon flights into thunderheads. My flight for Life Magazine was the first multi-celled (Pleiades) balloon flight using plastic bags, a minor distinction. The earlier flights of my father and Earl Barrows in the 30's were with rubber sounding balloons, although without the Sears lawn chair.
My father invented the plastic balloon for use in a Pleiades system. He developed the novel balloon for each individual cell by combining the spherical gas membrane of a normal balloon with the tear drop form of the net suspension system into one integrated unit. The concept was for balloons that would only be one per cent full at the surface. Don Melton and Ralph Upson refined the shape to the "Natural Shape," but the invention was Jean Piccard's. The use of that shape for fully inflated low altitude balloons, gas or hot air, seems strange and unnatural.
To continue the technicalities, on the October 23, 1934 flight Jeannette was the pilot, Jean was the scientific observer ("Payload Specialist") and it was the highest any female had ever piloted anything, but it was not a record. They had let Tex Settle use their balloon on his second attempt and he set an official world altitude record by using the scientific instruments as ballast, which Jeannette was wont to do although certainly tempted, reaching only 57,579 feet. Jean was scientific director of the flight, and a passenger on board but not a crew member and had no FAA, NAA or FAI certification at that time. The NAA and the FAI do not recognize it as a record, even in the feminine category.
Jean should also be credited exclusively with the frost free window invention and the liquid oxygen converter, although it was Jeannette's observation that led to the later invention. (I doubt that any one of the people surviving with emphysema with a walk around system know it was based on a balloon flight.) The use of explosives for remote control, dropping ballast, releasing tether lines at launch and now-a-days blowing off hatches, etc. on space craft was a unique invention of Jean's that was quite unnatural, unlikely to ever have been conceived by anyone else and met with considerable resistance when introduced.
The word Bathyscaph should have no "E" in its English spelling to ensure proper pronunciation. The word was coined in French to describe the deep ship invention that the twins made together when they were students, but the construction and use of the invention belong to Auguste and his son, my cousin Jacques.
Red Dragon was the first hot air balloon registered in England to fly, not counting, of course, the Channel Champ. It started the sport there and served as the model for the all-British balloons to follow. Thank God it had load tapes. Walter Neumark should be given much credit for introducing it there against the gas balloon hierarchy.
The Aeronautical Engineering Department Laboratory at the University of Minnesota and Mike Schoenberg should have the honor for my aluminum basket for my solo flight, not the Medical Lab. Mike, the shop boss, was well remembered by generations of U of M Aero students from Bob Gilruth to Deke Slayton.
Finally, the miracle plastic used in my "Body Helmet" design (now being offered by Tom Davies) is "Kydex." It is an alloy of PVC and acrylic plastics developed by Rohm and Haas.