World record for the longest free-fall

I was reading an article the other day about Felix Baumgartner who recently became the first man to break the speed of sound in free-fall. The jump took place 65 years to the day after Chuck Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier, whereas Chuck was being propelled in a jet, Felix was falling to the ground being propelled only by gravity (what goes up, must come down), which I think is a much scarier thought! Felix ascended to the height of 39km, to the edge of space, in a specially designed helium balloon before making his jump. He reached a top speed of 1342.8km/h and was in free-fall for 4 minutes and 20 seconds. Although Felix broke the sound barrier, and the records for highest manned balloon flight and highest free-fall jump, he did not beat the record for the longest free-fall.

The longest free-fall was actually achieved by Joseph Kittinger who fell for a record of 4 minutes and 36 seconds, 16 seconds longer than Felix Baumgartner. Joseph jumped, in 1962 (50 years before Felix's jump), from a height of approximately 31km above the Earth (8km closer to the Earth then Felix) and only reached speeds of 988km/h (354.8km/h less than Felix). Even though Joseph was in free-fall for a longer period of time, he actually only fell about 27km in free-fall, Felix on the other hand fell an astonishing 36.5km (9.5km longer than Joseph). Joseph spent a longer period of time in free-fall due to the lower speeds at which he fell. However since both Felix and Joseph used a Drogue parachute (a smaller parachute which is deployed to provide control and stability to a free-falling jumper), their free-falls are technically not considered to be genuine. The record for the longest genuine free-fall is thus considered to be held by Eugene Andreev who, in 1962, fell 24.5km (3km less distance than Joseph and 12km less than Felix) from a height of 25.46km above the Earth. As his jump was completed without the assistance of a Drogue parachute, he is considered to hold the world record for the longest free-fall.

If you would like to read the original article, check out The Age online or read about free-falls on Wikipedia.