Preparing For Flight Into Stratosphere -- Piccard, Piccard and Hill at the start of the practice flight. Beginning their training for a proposed flight into the stratosphere from Detroit this summer, Prof. Jean Piccaro and his wife, Jeannette, of Wilmington, Del., took off from the ford Airport in Dearborn yesterday in a racing balloon owned and piloted by Edward J. Hill, Detroit balloonist. The latter will train the Piccards in landing and ascension, and aid Mrs. Piccard in obtaining a balloon pilot's license. Piccard is a brother of Prof. Auguste Piccard, noted Belgian scientist and the first man to ever make a flight into the stratosphere. May 17, 1934. (Photo by Wide World).