Gaston Glock is an Austrian engineer, and founder of the firearms company Glock. He is a successful businessman and polymer manufacturer, who by chance wound up working with the Austrian Ministry of Defense at the beginning of the year 1980.
Glock supplied the army with combined trench tools, non-moldering machine gun belts and hand grenades at the time. His company produced household goods (curtain shafts, drawer rods, etc.) and Glock had skills with traditional production.
In 1980, the Austrian military announced that it was looking for a new, modern duty pistol to replace their World War II-era Walther P38 handguns. The Austrian Ministry of Defense formulated a new list of criteria for the new generation service pistol.
In 1982 Gaston Glock started development for his own pistol, based on these criteria. He assembled a team of Europe’s leading handgun experts from military, police and civilian sport shooting circles to define the most desirable characteristics in a combat pistol. Within three months, Glock developed a working prototype.
The final prototype evolved into the Glock 17 9MM semi-automatic pistol. The Glock 17 was a revolutionary new design made from steel and a high strength, black polymer plastic called Nylon 6. It was named because it was the 17th patent of the company. After they were submitted for assessment trials in early 1982, and after passing all of the exhaustive endurance and abuse tests, Glock emerged as the winner with the Model 17.
The handgun was adopted into service with the Austrian military and police forces in 1982 as the Pistol 80, with an initial order for 25,000 guns. The Glock 17 outperformed 8 different pistols from five other established manufacturers, including Beretta, Heckler & Koch, and Browning.
The results of the Austrian trials sparked a wave of interest in Western Europe and overseas, particularly in the United States because a similar effort to select a service-wide replacement for the M1911 had been ongoing since the late 1970s. This replacement effort became known as the Joint Service Small Arms Program.
In late 1983, the United States Department of Defense inquired about the Glock pistol and received four samples of the Glock 17 for unofficial evaluation. Glock was then invited to participate in the XM9 Personal Defense Pistol Trials, but declined because the DOD specifications would require extensive retooling of production equipment and providing 35 test samplers in an unrealistic time frame.
Shortly thereafter, the Glock 17 was accepted into service with the Norwegian, and Swedish Armed Forces, surpassing all prior NATO durability standards. As a result the Glock 17 became a standard NATO-classified and was granted a NATO Stock Number (1005/25/133/6775).
The Glock Company kept working hard on producing even more innovative and technologically advanced models of pistols for different uses. The Glock 18 was the next model the company produced. The growing company established a manufacturing plant in Smyrna, Georgia in response to its demanding orders for pistols.
The Glock in general, was modified several times throughout its production history. In 1991, an integrated recoil spring assembly replaced the original two-piece recoil spring and tube design. The magazine was also slightly modified, changing the floor plate and fitting the follower spring with a resistance insert at its base.
The mid-life upgrade to the Glock pistols involved the addition of checkering on the front strap and serrations to the back strap, which makes an easier grip. These versions are informally referred to as “second generation” models. To meet American ATF regulations, a steel plate with a stamped serial number was embedded into the receiver in front of the trigger guard.
While still supplying the demands of its existing customers, Glock still found time to develop new pistols and in 1988, the G17L and the G19 were introduced to the public. This is also the year that the company gave all of its pistols serrated front and back straps.
In the late 1990s, the frame was further modified with an accessory rail called the “Universal Glock rail”. This allowed the mounting or laser sights, tactical lights, and other accessories. Thumb rests, on both sides of the frame, and finger grooves on the front strap were also added. These pistols are informally known as the early “third generation” models.
Later third generation models additionally featured a modified extractor that also serves as a loaded chamber indicator, and the locking block was enlarged, along with the addition of an extra cross pin to aid the distribution of forces exerted by the locking block. This cross pin is known as the locking block pin and located above the trigger pin.
In the year 1990, Glock introduced a number of new pistol models to its customers. The G22 and G23 were the first .40 S and W guns available. The G20 and G21 models were also introduced to the public by Glock. By 1992, some 350,000 pistols had been sold in more than 45 countries, including 250,000 in the United States alone.
In 2009 the Glock RTF2 (Rough Texture frame 2) was introduced. This pistol featured a new checkering texture around the grip and new scalloped serrations at the rear of the sides of the slide, and was chambered in .40 Smith & Wesson.
The introduction of fourth generation Glock pistols continued in July 2010 when the Glock 19 and Glock 23, the reduced size “compact” versions of the Glock 17 and Glock 22, became available for retail. In late 2010 Glock continued the introduction of fourth generation models with the Glock 26 and Glock 27 “subcompact” variants.
Glock is a company that started with the ambition for something better. Beginning with one small plastic manufacturing plant, it soon became a leader in the pistol industry and has provided many needed weapons for the military, police force and security personnel. It is, and always has been, made from only the most reliable and durable materials, making them safe and effective.