Some might say Bertrand Piccard has adventurer in his genes. His father, Jacques, was one of the first people to explore the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the world's oceans. And his grandfather Auguste - the inspiration for Professor Calculus in Herge's Tintin comic books - set records for exploring the highest reaches of Earth's atmosphere in his pressurised gondola balloon.
Now, Bertrand Piccard is looking to add a new record to the family mantelpiece by flying a jumbo jet-sized plane powered solely with energy from the sun across America.
The attempt is part of the initial stages of Piccard's lifelong dream to see a solar-powered plane fly around the world by 2015.
Clear skies permitting, his Solar Impulse HB-SIA plane is due to take off any day from Nasa's Silicon Valley research airbase for a test flight, before undertaking a five-stop flight across the United States starting on May 1 and taking in Dallas, Phoenix, Atlanta or St Louis, Washington, DC, and finally New York.
"When I was a child I saw my father diving to the deepest point in the ocean with the US Navy," explained Piccard, a Swiss national and a psychiatrist by trade, in the latest promotion video on his website.