From Book "Aces of the Air"
Article Parachutes!
By Lt H B Miller USN
Engineering Officer, Fighting Plane Squadron Two
Later Rear-Admiral Harold Blaine "Min" Miller
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/18/us...irigibles.html
Also
http://discovery.nationalarchives.go...ils/r/C5318773
Page 86
"The first emergency jump in naval aviation was made by Gunner W. M. Cole on October 16th, 1924. Cole was flying under clouds at about 1,200 feet. Suddenly he felt a shock and saw that his left wing had been carried away by a second plane which had dived through the clouds. With his ship out of control he jumped clear, counted three and pulled his rip-cord. The parachute opened at once, and landed him on the golf course of the Coronado Country Club. The occupants of the other plane did not survive the collision."