Pyotr Dolgov

Pyotr Ivanovich Dolgov (Пётр Долгов; 21 February 1920 – 1 November 1962) (Hero of the Soviet Union) was a colonel in the Soviet Air Force. Dolgov was killed while carrying out a high-altitude parachute jump from a Volga balloon gondola.

Early life and career
Dolgov was born into a family of farmers in the village of Bogoyavlenskoye (now Dolgovo) in Zemetchinsky District, Penza Oblast. He served with the airborne troops of the USSR in World War II. He reportedly designed the ejection seats for the Vostok spacecraft.

Death
On 1 November 1962, Dolgov and Eugene Andreyev ascended in a Volga balloon gondola from Volsk, near Saratov, to make high-altitude parachute jumps. Andreyev successfully completed his jump. Dolgov, testing an experimental pressure suit, jumped at 28,640 meters (93,970 ft). The helmet visor of Dolgov's pressure suit hit part of the gondola as he exited, and the suit depressurized, killing him. On 12 December 1962, Dolgov was posthumously named a Hero of the Soviet Union.

If Dolgov's jump had been successful he still would not have exceeded the record set by Joseph Kittinger for the highest-altitude parachute jump in history (31,300 meters, 16 August 1960). However, this record has since been broken by Felix Baumgartner (38,969 meters, 14 October 2012).

Legacy
At the time of Dolgov's death, the Soviet Army newspaper Red Star announced that he had died in the course of "carrying out his duties". Over the years there have been false reports that Dolgov actually died on 11 October 1960, in a failed flight of a Vostok spacecraft.

A fictionalized version of Dolgov's death (incorrectly dated in February 1961) appears in the short story "The Chief Designer" by Andy Duncan, which was published in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine and was a Hugo finalist.