Welcome to at this time’s Photo of the Day! Right here we now have a Smith & Wesson M13 Aircrewman, one of many scarce Okay-frame revolvers the Air Power issued to strategic bomber crews between 1951-1957. This was an try and create the lightest attainable survival revolver, and it labored till the Air Power realized they’d created a security hazard and ordered each M13 in stock destroyed. The Aircrewman used an aluminum alloy body and cylinder to save lots of weight for aircrew survival kits. The pondering was sound – bomber crews flying lengthy missions over hostile territory wanted defensive weapons, and each ounce mattered if you’re speaking about bailout gear. A light-weight .38 Particular revolver made sense on paper.
The issue was the alloy cylinder. Metal parts will bend or bulge beneath extreme stress, supplying you with a warning earlier than catastrophic failure. Alloy cylinders fracture. After they let go, they don’t deform gracefully; they arrive aside violently. The Air Power found this wasn’t theoretical, and in 1959, issued a directive to forcibly retire each alloy cylinder revolver nonetheless in service. M13s in authorities shops had been crushed, lower, chopped, or in any other case rendered unserviceable earlier than being offered as scrap.
That destruction order is why surviving M13 Aircrewmen are unusual at this time. Most had been actually destroyed by the identical authorities that ordered them constructed. Those that survive both left service earlier than the 1959 directive or one way or the other prevented the scrapyard – possible weapons that had already been surplused or transferred earlier than the order got here down.
Most of our POTDs make the most of pictures from our associates at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms public sale in the US. Take a while to browse their current auctions – who is aware of, possibly you’ll discover a piece of historical past to take house!
Scarce U.S.A.F. Contract Smith & Wesson M13 Aircrewman Double Motion Revolver with Holster | Rock Island Public sale, www.rockislandauction.com/element/1049/595/usaf-sw-m13-aircrewman-revolver-with-holster. Accessed 7 Dec. 2025.
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