Yevgeni Nikolayevich Andreyev

Who was Yevgeni Nikolayevich Andreyev?

Yevgeni Nikolayevich Andreyev was a colonel in the Soviet Air Force. Andreyev set an official record for the longest distance free-fall parachute jump on 1 November 1962, which the Guinness Book of Records put at 24,500 meters. The record was previously held by Joseph Kittinger, whose jump was for a longer distance, but was stabilized by a drogue parachute. Andreyev was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union for his feat. The free fall distance record stood for nearly 50 years until broken by Felix Baumgartner in 2012.