Eastern Airlines Pilot Gun

[Czechvar]

Around 1970 Colt built a very special revolver for Eastern Airline Pilots. It shot Plaster of Paris projectiles:

Colt's Special Revolver for Airline Pilots - YouTube

 

[John Patrick]

That’s cool!

 

[Jim Watson]

At one time pilots flying the Air Mail were required to be armed.
United bought Colt .380s.
Colts In The Cockpit: Arming Pilots—From Airmail To Commercial Aviation | An Official Journal Of The NRA

 

[sigp220.45]

Still a bunch of armed pilots out there. I used to do their quals. HK USP Compact .40s, being replaced with boring old Glock 19s.

 

[Buford57]

I find this especially interesting since I carried a Lawman Mk III snub for much of my career. I was issued some lame ammo a couple of years, but (thankfully) never plaster of Paris.

 

[DWalt]

Many years ago (early 1970s), at an OGCA show I saw a Colt 1911 .38 Super pistol which had been the property of Transcontinental & Western Air (TWA), the predecessor of Trans World Airways. It had something like "Property of TWA" engraved on it somewhere, but I don't remember whether it was on the slide or frame. It even had some authentication documents. I would have loved to buy it but the price was well beyond my means at the time. Strange that I still remember it.

That was around the time I almost bought Ian Fleming's authenticated Ruger .22. But I didn't buy it either. There used to be lots of good stuff like that at the OGCA shows.

 

[DWalt]

Around 1970 Colt built a very special revolver for Eastern Airline Pilots. It shot Plaster of Paris projectiles:

The plaster bullet cartridges were not removable. This is the story:
The Colt Revolver for Pilots that Fired Plaster Bullets | Range 365

 

[Retired W4]

In my civilian flying days I always carried a Glock 19 in the JetStar II and Sikorsky S-76. That almost got me in trouble at Chicago Midway and Boston Logan. I was flying under FAR Part 91. In the jet I had Bee-Safe for the first two rounds up, but cycling problems caused me to stop that procedure. Those were the days after 9/11.