Donald Louis Piccard (January 13, 1926 – September 13, 2020) was a Swiss-born American balloon pioneer, promoter, innovator, designer, builder, and pilot.

[3] On 13 April 1963, Piccard and Ed Yost were the first people to cross the English Channel in a hot air balloon.

At Raven, he is credited with making hot air balloons safer by the use of load tapes, lobular gore design, light weight long life fabric and non-conductive materials.

[2] Piccard is also credited with the rapid delation concept, which is superior and safer than the 1970 balloon parachute top design.

[12] Don Piccard, descended from a long line of aeronauts, built and sold some of the first modern hot air balloons, beginning in the mid-1960s.