October 20, 1922  The first successful use of a free-fall parachute during an in-flight emergency took place over Dayton, Ohio on October 20, 1922. Lt. Harold R. Harris, Chief of the Flying Section at McCook Field, was testing experimental balanced-type ailerons on a Loening PW-2A while engaging in mock aerial combat with Lt. Muir Fairchild who was flying a Thomas-Morse MB-3. While pulling his Loening into a right turn, Harris noted the control stick suddenly began to oscillate violently from side-to-side, following which the wings were, in his own words, "torn apart." The Loening went into a dive and at 2,500 feet, with certain death the only alternative, Harris bailed out, hoping to

save his life by a method not yet proved. However, he neither lost consciousness nor his ability to reason during his free-fall as some had predicted would happen to a flyer after parachuting from a stricken plane. When Harris pulled the ripcord at 500 feet, the parachute opened immediately and he landed in a "back yard." The Loening crashed a block away and was completely destroyed.