Yevgeny Nikolayevich Andreyev (; 4 September 1926 – 9 February 2000) was a

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

in the

Soviet Air Force The Soviet Air Forces (, VVS SSSR; literally "Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"; initialism VVS, sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Sovie ...

. He set an official record for the longest-distance

free-fall In classical mechanics, free fall is any motion of a body where gravity is the only force acting upon it. A freely falling object may not necessarily be falling down in the vertical direction. If the common definition of the word "fall" is used, ...

parachute A parachute is a device designed to slow an object's descent through an atmosphere by creating Drag (physics), drag or aerodynamic Lift (force), lift. It is primarily used to safely support people exiting aircraft at height, but also serves va ...

jump on 1 November 1962, which the ''

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

'' put at . The previous record holder for highest free-fall jump was

Joseph Kittinger Joseph William Kittinger II (July 27, 1928 – December 9, 2022) was an officer in the United States Air Force (USAF) who served from 1950 to 1978, and earned Command Pilot status before retiring with the rank of colonel. He held the world rec ...

. Although Andreyev did not break the record for highest parachute jump, also held by Kittinger, Kittinger's jump was stabilized by a

drogue parachute A drogue parachute, also called drag chute, is a parachute designed for deployment from a rapidly moving object. It can be used for various purposes, such as to decrease speed, to provide control and stability, as a pilot parachute to deploy ...

and therefore not free-fall. Andreyev was awarded the

Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union () was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society. The title was awarded both ...

for his feat. Andreyev's record stood until 2012, when

Felix Baumgartner Felix Baumgartner (; born 20 April 1969) is an Austrian skydiver, daredevil and BASE jumper. He is widely known for jumping to Earth from a helium balloon from the stratosphere on 14 October 2012 and landing in New Mexico, United States, as p ...

broke it with a jump from .

Early life

Andreyev was born on 4 September 1926 in the city of Novosibirsk, Russia. From 1937 to 1942 he was brought up in an orphanage in Serov, Sverdlovsk Region. He worked in a factory in the city of Nizhny Tagil. He was in the Soviet Army in 1943. He studied at the School of Armavir pilots. In 1955 he graduated from the Ryazan Airborne School. After graduation he participated in a test of parachute systems on 1 November 1962 as part of a secret experiment conducted by the head of the Soviet space program

Sergey Korolev Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (14 January 1966) was the lead Soviet Aerospace engineering, rocket engineer and spacecraft designer during the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s. He invented the R-7 Sem ...

. From 1972 to 1991, he was a member of the

CPSU The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

Career and death

On 1 November 1962, Andreyev and

Pyotr Dolgov Pyotr Ivanovich Dolgov (; 21 February 1920 – 1 November 1962) (Hero of the Soviet Union) was a colonel in the Soviet airborne forces. Dolgov died while carrying out a high-altitude parachute jump from a Volga balloon gondola.Dolgov's year of d ...

ascended from

Volsk Volsk () is a town in Saratov Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Volga River, opposite the mouth of the Bolshoy Irgiz (a tributary of the Volga), northeast from Saratov, the administrative center of the oblast. As of the 2021 C ...

, near

Saratov Saratov ( , ; , ) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River. Saratov had a population of 901,361, making it the List of cities and tow ...

. Andreyev jumped from the capsule at and free-fell before successfully deploying his parachute. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on 12 December 1962 for courage and heroism shown during the trial of the parachute equipment, Evgeny Andreyev was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

and Gold Star medal (№ 11092). Andreyev was a Master of Sports in the former USSR and holder of FAI Sporting Licence #3812. In 1985, Andreyev, one of the first in the country, was awarded the honorary title of Honored skydiver test the USSR, badge number 3. In total, he made eight jumps from the stratosphere. He lived in the village Chkalovsky, Moscow region. He died on 9 February 2000 and is buried in the cemetery of the village Leoniha of Schyolkovo district, Moscow region.

References

External links

Andreyev's biography
at Stratopedia, the balloon encyclopedia

at Stratopedia, the balloon encyclopedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Andreyev, Evgeniy 1926 births 2000 deaths Heroes of the Soviet Union Military personnel from Novosibirsk Ryazan Guards Higher Airborne Command School alumni Soviet Air Force officers Soviet balloonists Soviet parachuting pioneers Space diving

Early life

Career and death

See also

References

External links