The following curious incident was reported during the First World War. One French pilot, while flying at an altitude of 2 kilometers, saw what he took to be a fly near his face. Trapping it with his hands, he was astonished to find that he had caught a German bullet! How like the tall stories told by Baron Munchausen of legendary fame, who claimed he had caught cannon balls with bare hands! But there is nothing incredible in the bullet-catching story.
A bullet does not fly everlastingly with its initial velocity of 800-900 m/sec. Air resistance causes it to slow down gradually to a mere 40 m/sec towards the end of its journey. Since aircraft fly with a similar speed, we can easily have a situation when bullet and plane will be flying with the same speed, in which case the bullet, in its relation to the plane and its pilot, will be stationary or barely moving. The pilot can easily catch it with his hand, especially if gloved, because a bullet heats up considerably while whizzing through the air.
Source: Physics for Entertainment by Y. Perelman.
