Please note that when they were fielded and used for quite a while, John Browning moved on to the HiPower to address the issues.
Browning was constantly moving on, looking for different, and hopefully better things. Note that his designs went from dual links to a single link, and the last to a cam system for pivoting the barrel. (and it was his last, I think, only because he died. AND, he died quite a few YEARS before the HiPower design was finished. The finished HiPower pistol looks very little like his prototypes, and while I have no proof, I've always felt naming it the Browning HiPower was both a tribute and a marketing ploy, to capitalize on the fame of Browning's name, for a gun that was mostly designed and finished by others.
If the 1911 was given the benefit of modern design and workup, a lot of it's intrinsic issues might not be there at all - but it would look slightly different.
Oh, exactly...
This is a further testament to the true genius of JM Browning. He didn't have a design team of engineers able to spend thousands of man hours doing computer design before actually creating a product. He also didn't have over half a century of seeing what worked, what didn't, and how well in combat.
Over 20 different firearms designs that became tremendous commercial and military success, WITHOUT an engineering staff, without computer support, without the benefit of a modern education, modern metallurgy, without the benefit of decades of use history of firearms of similar designs ... impressive doesn't even begin to describe it.
Browning seldom did much "paper" design work, most of what he did is simple rough sketches. Browning often carved his designs as wood models, turned them into steel prototypes when he was comfortable with the concepts, then refined those, and then using what he had tested and actually worked, put the designs on paper in the usual way.
All the failings and shortcomings of the 1911 design we see today were state of the art in 1911. They aren't any more maint. intensive than any other gun of the era (or for many decades afterwards) and less needful of care than many guns of the era, or even later.
Don't,however, fall into the trap of thinking the 1911 needs no care. The legend of the 1911 always working is just that, legend, NOT fact. But where the legend came from was the fact that the 1911 most often worked better than its contemporaries when it didn't get the "proper" care.
Someone once described the US GI 1911A1 as "the best combination of size, weight, ergonomics, and power ever produced in one package". Certainly true a half century ago, and some of us still think its true today.
