Thread by @bertyashley

#TYL 64.1
This is Swiss physicist Auguste Piccard. On 27 May 1931 he and Paul Kipfer took off in a huge yellow balloon and reached an altitude of 51,775 feet making them the first humans to enter the stratosphere and the first to see the curvature of the Earth with their eyes.

#TYL 64.2
This is Auguste's twin brother Jean Piccard and his wife Jeannette Piccard. Oct 23 1934 they reached 57,579 ft beating Auguste's record. Jeanette held the world altitude record for women for 29 years before it was eclipsed by Valentina Tereshkova who went in to space.

Needless to say the balloon that took them to that incredible height was designed and built by both of them.

When Jeannette did solo trials earlier, Henry Ford offered the Ford Hangar on his company's ground. On one of those training flights in 1933, Orville Wright (yup same first-manned flight guy) showed up to congratulate her and also shook hands with her then 11 year old son Don.

#TYL 64.3
Belgian cartoonist Hergé based Professor Calculus on Auguste Piccard when he saw him walking around Brussels during his tenure as a lecturer there. Gene Roddenberry named the captain of the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek 'Jean-Luc Picard' as a tribute to the brothers.

How important are these accomplishments? Till then all previous ascents had shown that flying into the stratosphere could be fatal and that to penetrate the isothermal layer, with its low pressure, a new kind of balloon has to be built. Auguste Piccard put his brain to work.

He built a balloon that was equipped with a pressurized, air-tight cabin. It had an envelope large enough and with enough ascent strength so that during departure, it need not be completely filled. This important feature is explained by the Universal Gas Law.

As a balloon rises into the atmosphere, gases within the envelope will expand, increasing pressure, as the atmospheric pressure outside decreases. 
Yup he scienced the issue clean and rose to the occasion.

#TYL 64.4
This is Jacques Piccard S/O Auguste. Jacques went the opposite direction and developed submarines. On Jan 23 1960 Jacques & Don Walsh reached the bottom of the Mariana trench. At 35,797 ft below sea level they became the first humans to reach the deepest point on Earth.

#TYL 64.5
This Bertrand Piccard, son of Jacques Piccard. Since his grandfather went up, and his father went down he decided to go around. In 1999 this trained psychiatrist, along with Brian Jones set off in a egg-shaped cockpit suspended from a huge balloon.

They became the first humans to fly around the world non-stop. Their flight lasted 19 days and 21 hours. It is also important to note that this was also the first time circumnavigation was done with out requiring fuel for any sort of forward motion!

In 2016 our man Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg went around the globe (again!) but this time in a solar-powered aircraft called Solar Impulse 2. They became the first humans to fly 42,000-kilometres around the Earth using only solar power.

#TYL 64.6
Other Piccards:
Jules Piccard, father of Auguste&Jean was a chemist who studied under Robert Bunsen (the burner guy) and confirmed the atomic weight of Rubidium.
Don Piccard, S/O Jean & Jeannette was the first person to cross the English Channel in a hot air balloon.

And that's a wrap! :)
Now all I need to do is go listen to '99 red balloons' by Nena and my day is good :)

Shout out to @polybiotique for excellent feedback.Being a good scientist means providing citations. So henceforth i shall do so! For more info on the Piccards check these out-
1.fai.org/sites/default/…
2.fai.org/news/jeannette…
3.deepseachallenge.com/the-expedition…
4.fai.org/sites/default/…