Yevgeny Nikolayevich Andreyev

Yevgeny Nikolajewitsch Andrejew ( Russian Евгений Николаевич Андреев ; born September 4, 1926 in Novosibirsk , † February 9, 2000 in Shcholkowo ) was a Russian test pilot and parachutist .

Life

Yevgeny Andreyev was drafted into the army in 1944 and came to the flying school in Armavir , where he completed training as a paratrooper . After graduating, he began his career as a test jumper. Andrejew tested a catapult seat at supersonic speed for the first time in the Soviet Union in 1954 , but suffered injuries to his foot when exiting, which resulted in a lifelong disability. Nevertheless, he was able to continue his career as a test jumper.

Andreyev became known in the USSR for his stratospheric jump on November 1, 1962, when he rose with the 70,000 m³ helium balloon "Volga" near the city of Wolsk and jumped from a height of 25,458 m. Since, unlike Joseph Kittinger, who jumped from over 30,000 m two years earlier, he did not use a control screen and only opened his parachute at a height of 958 m, he was the world record holder for the deepest free fall of a human being, at 24,500 m, until Felix Baumgartner found him on 14. Replaced October 2012 with 36,402.6 m.

His colleague Pyotr Dolgow , who jumped after him, was killed because he damaged his pressure suit when he got out of the balloon capsule . Both received the Hero of the Soviet Union award . In total, Andreyev set eight world records and completed over 4,000 jumps.

literature

• Heinz Machatschek: Personalities of Soviet aviation (3): N. N. Polikarpow and J. N. Andrejew . In: Flieger-Jahrbuch 85/86 . Transpress, 1984, ISSN  0428-5697 .
• G. Swishchev et al .: Avijazija: enziklopedija . Bolschaja rossijskaja enziklopedija, Moscow 1994, p. 61. (Russian)

Web links

• Russia News: Austrian aims for Soviet record (with photo of Andrejew) from October 11, 2012
• High Altitude World Record Jumps