Photos: Soaring ambition for solar aircraft

Solar Impluse founder and pilot Bertrand Piccard began his eclectic career as a psychiatrist specializing in hypnotherapy. That led to an interest in how humans behave under extreme conditions. From there, he became involved in ballooning and won the first transatlantic balloon race before starting his famous Breitling Orbiter project. Piloting the Orbiter 3 in 1990, he made the first nonstop, round-the-world balloon flight, setting a record for the longest flight in the history of air travel.

Using the money he won for his historic Orbiter flight, Piccard started the humanitarian foundation Winds of Hope, which tries to combat deadly childhood diseases in poor countries.