Not every military test pilot can set records like Chuck Yeager, but what happened to Tom Attridge on September 21, 1956 was truly remarkable. As Attridge settled into the cockpit for his second test flight of the day, he was at the controls of the Navy’s first supersonic fighter jet, the Grumman F11F Tiger. Conceived as a way to modernize the F9F Cougar by reducing drag and increasing speed, the Navy was so impressed with its maiden flight that it placed an order for more than 400 planes. Attridge took off from Grumman’s airfield on Long Island, New York, to perform a weapons test over the Atlantic Ocean, piloting his Tiger to an altitude of 20,000 feet. He then began a Mach 1 dive, and with the jet at about 13,000 feet, he fired a 4-second round from his 20mm cannons. After a few seconds, he fired again, continuing his descent. At 7,000 feet, a loud smack signaled the first sign of trouble. Attridge thought a bird had struck his windshield, but he also noticed his plane was losing power. He throttled his Tiger to about 230mph and began his return to the airfield, but the plane wasn’t functioning at full power. In fact, the engine sounded like it was tearing up. Attridge lost power entirely about two miles from the runway. The Tiger caught fire and lost a wing and stabilizer, forcing Attridge to eject. The Tiger landed in a bunch of trees less than a mile from the landing strip, then went another 300 feet before stopping. Bullet holes were found in the canopy glass, right engine and nose cone, and a bullet was lodged in the engine's compressor. The plane was deemed a total loss. How was this even possible? It turns out that the plane had somehow caught up to a bullet it fired. As both the plane and bullets descended — with one slowing down as the other was speeding up — the difference in distance was erased and their paths intersected. While the Navy dismissed the incident as a “million to one shot,” Attridge was skeptical, believing that it could happen again. For all of its promise, the Tiger was only in service from 1957 to 1969. Attridge became known as the test pilot who had gone where no test pilot had gone before — right into the path of his own bullets.