Rarely do we consider it as the primary armament of a combat aircraft.
Long-arms were brought to bear, rifles, carbines and the occasional shotgun.
Why the Cartridge Catcher?
There were two primary styles of World War I aircraft.
Aircraft with a forward-mounted engine were called tractors, and aircraft with rear-mounted engines were called pushers.
Pusher aircraft designs were quite slow and nearly blind to the rear.
For a short time, pusher aircraft became the best of the early aerial gun platforms.
However, danger from friendly fire was always present.
So thats how an otherwise normal M1911 came to be fitted with a cartridge-catching cage.
I have included that image here to give you a look.
I also asked my friend Kurt Pakan to illustrate this exceptionally rare M1911 in color.
As for the extension magazines, that has been a topic of debate for some time.
It seems likely that the one pictured held 14 to 15 rounds.
Some privately produced extension mags (trench magazines) are rumored to have held 20+ rounds.
For the moment anyway, the details of those unique World War I M1911 accessories are lost in time.
Maybe one day we will have our answers, but today we just have the questions.
