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The Grumman F-11 Tiger holds a very cool distinction? It’s the first jet credited with shooting “itself” down. Here’s how it played out. On September 21, 1956, during a test-firing of Tiger’s 20 mm cannons, pilot Tom Attridge fired two bursts midway through a shallow dive at 22,000 ft. As the velocity and trajectory of the cannon rounds decayed, they ultimately crossed paths with the still descending Tiger at 7,000 ft. Attridge didn’t know what hit him! The hits shredded the engine and destroyed control surfaces, forcing Attridge to make a crash landing; he survived!
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