NAACO Brigadier

The Brigadier is a pistol developed by the North America Arms Corporation (NAACO) to meet Canadian requirements for a service handgun in the aftermath of World War II. It was based largely on the FN GP35 Hi-Power self-loading pistol of 1935 but scaled up significantly. Whereas the Hi-Power used the 9×19mm cartridge, the NAACO Brigadier used a new long-case .45 inch round of greater length and much greater power than the then-standard .45 ACP. With a standard 230-grain (15 g) bullet, the .45 NAACO cartridge could produce muzzle velocities of up to 1,600 feet per second (490 m/s), or almost twice as fast as the .45 ACP. In order to keep weight down, the pistol used an aluminium frame, but still weighed more than four pounds, unloaded. Its box magazine could carry eight rounds of ammunition. A removable trigger module allowed for a fully automatic configuration, complete with an attachable butt-stock. This would produce a sub-machine gun configuration called the Borealis (never constructed). Gunsmith Robert Herman and Designer Russell Sutherland spent a year developing the prototype.