High Standard T3 Prototype: An American Blowback
Prototype & Trials Weapons
•
12m
In 1947, the US Army Air Corps (it had not yet become the Air Force) was assessing its pilot survival equipment, and decided that it wanted a smaller and lighter handgun than the Colt 1911. It put forth a tender for new designs in .30 to .35 caliber, and two companies were chosen to produce prototypes. These were Colt and High Standard, and today's pistol is one of the High Standard guns.
Designated the T3, High Standard made three batches of four guns each, for a total of 12. The first and last batches used single stack magazines and the second batch used double stack Browning High Power magazines, but they were all aluminum-framed guns chambered for 9x19mm. The Army Air Corps wanted simple blowback actions, noting on the tender that the Beretta 1923, Astra 400, and Walther MP all demonstrating that a blowback 9x19 handgun was feasible. High Standard complied, but also submitted barrels for the guns which used an interesting delaying system which consisted of rings cut in the chambers. Brass cartridge cases would expand into these rings upon firing, thus requiring addition time and energy to force the cases to extract, thus delaying the opening of the slide.
Ultimately in 1953 the project was cancelled, as the pistols all showed significant frame damage - the aluminum alloy was just not compatible with the high slide velocity that was the natural consequence of the unlocked action. However, it is very interesting to note the number of notable firearms designers involved in the project - George Wilson, Robert Hillberg, and Ott-Helmuth von Lossnitzer among them.
Up Next in Prototype & Trials Weapons
-
The Short-Lived No1 Mk6 SMLE Lee Enfield
The SMLE No1 Mk3 was the iconic British infantry rifle of World War 1, but not the final evolution of the Lee Enfield design. By World War 2 it had been replaced by the new No4 Mk1 Lee Enfield, and this is the story of the interim models.
At the end of WW1, the British recognized several areas...
-
The Very First Troop Trials SMLE Rifles
One of the British lessons form the Boer War was that the distinction between infantry rifles and cavalry carbines was becoming obsolete. In 1902, they would initiate troop trials on a new short rifle pattern, intermediate in length between the old rifles and carbines, and intended to be issued u...
-
White Experimental .38 Caliber Automa...
White's experiments in handgun design did not begin with the White-Merrill 1907 submitted to US handgun trials. In 1905 he submitted a patent for features in these two .38 caliber semiauto prototype pistols. These are both short recoil actions, one with a C96-like locking block and one with a rot...
