Bertrand Piccard

The Voyage

Bertrand Piccard is the third generation of the Piccard pioneering family — son of Jacques Piccard (Don Walsh's Challenger Deep co-pilot, 1960) and grandson of Auguste Piccard (designer of the bathyscaphe and the first man into the stratosphere, 1931). Bertrand made the first non-stop round-the-world balloon flight in 1999 with Brian Jones (Breitling Orbiter 3), then designed and flew Solar Impulse 2 — a solar-electric aircraft — around the world non-stop in 2015–16 with co-pilot André Borschberg. The two missions together established Piccard as one of the few living pioneers to have set first-ever records in two different mediums of travel.

The Stewardship

Piccard founded the Solar Impulse Foundation, which has identified and labelled more than 1,400 clean-technology solutions ready to deploy at scale — the Efficient Solutions portfolio. He is a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Environment Programme and a senior advisor on climate technology to the European Commission. His framing of the climate problem as fundamentally a pioneering opportunity, not a sacrifice, has shaped the language of clean-tech investment.

The Vessels

Solar Impulse 2 — 72-metre wingspan solar aircraft, the first to circumnavigate the globe powered only by the sun. Breitling Orbiter 3 — Cameron Balloons Rozière, first non-stop circumnavigation by balloon, 1999.

Why this voice on Wind Voyage

Piccard's argument — that the pioneering instinct should now be aimed at clean technology — is the philosophical foundation of Wind Voyage. We exist because the next generation of explorers expects their vehicle to be as forward as their ambition is.