Colt Aircrew .38 Special

[Lee Enfield]

Interestingly for the trials Colt supplied a "D" frame Cobra with an aluminum cylinder.

S&W supplied 5 shot (aparently first "J" frame) & 6 shot "K" frame trials guns.

The 5 shot revolver won the trials, but seems to have failed actual service use.

[ordnanceguy]

As a B47 AOB, SAC 310th Bomb Squadron (M/JET) I was issued a Colt Aircrew revolver S/N C261136 and carried it on deployment to the UK in 1955. As I remember it, it was an all aluminum Detective Special.

An old but interesting thread. One thing in the original post stood out to me and that was the serial number. Genuine Colt Aircrewman revolvers had two numbers, the Colt serial number on the frame and then the Air Force had its own number on the butt preceded by A.F. The Colt numbers generally ran in the 2900LW to 7775LW range. None of them had a C-prefix serial number.

What did have a C-prefix serial number was the S&W M13 Aircrewman 6 shot revolver. Perhaps member Cosine's receipt with C261136 was for a S&W Aircrewman, not a Colt.

The Colt was essentially a prototype as only 1189 Colt Aircrewman were manufactured. The gun was not adopted (neither was the 5-shot S&W Baby Aircrewman)and S&W eventually won the contract producing about 40,000 6-shot M13 Aircrewman revolvers for Air Force use.

The Colt.



The S&W M13.



Regards,
Charlie

[rice 123]

I wonder what happened to all of the M15 revolvers that were turned in in the late 80s and early 90s

[ordnanceguy]

I wonder what happened to all of the M15 revolvers that were turned in in the late 80s and early 90s

Regrettably, I expect that most of them were destroyed. I understand that the USAF still has a few S&W Model 15s in inventory. They are used in the sentry dog training program.



Genuine USAF marked Model 15 revolvers in civilian hands are very scarce. The few that legitimately leaked out of the military are guns that were offered to state and local Law Enforcement Agencies after being deemed surplus to Air Force, other branches and other Federal agencies' requirements. Those that went to LE agencies were sometimes later traded for more modern weapons (usually semiautomatic pistols as revolvers fell out of fashion). Dealers taking in these trades were then able to offer USGI Air Force issued MOdel 15 revolvers. I don't think that the DCM ever sold any Model 15s.

Regards,
Charlie

[browningautorifle]

Those are hard done by revolvers...