Faster Than A Speeding Bullet,

is phrase often heard,

photograph above of a F-16 by Pixabay, if you shot a bullet and then accelerated can you be shot by your own speeding bullet? in other words fly faster than a speeding bullet, catch it up and put yourself into the firing line, so if you are in an aircraft and fired your own 20 mm cannon could you shoot yourself down? the answer surprisingly is yes, as the pilot of a Dutch F-16 found out! the Netherlands’ Defense Safety Inspection Agency (Inspectie Veiligheid Defensie) is investigating an incident during a January military exercise in which a Dutch Air Force F-16 was damaged by live fire from a 20-millimeter cannon, and this is the thing, its own 20-millimeter cannon! it appears that the damaged aircraft actually caught up with the 20mm rounds it fired as it pulled out of its firing run,

 a 20mm cannon, at least one of the rounds struck the side of the F-16’s fuselage, and parts of a round were ingested by the aircraft’s engine, the rounds have a muzzle velocity of 3,450 feet per second (1050 meters per second), that is speed boosted initially by the aircraft itself, but atmospheric drag slows the shells down eventually, and if a pilot accelerates and maneuvers in the wrong way after firing the cannon, the aircraft could be unexpectedly reunited with its recently departed rounds, you can read the rest of this fascinating story over at Arstechnica, now what is the other phrase? 'shoot yourself in the foot', yes that's it!