(The 17 was so-named because it Glock 23 was Gaston Glock's seventeenth patent.) The Austrian Detail adopted the Glock 17 in 1982 with the Norwegian Army adopting the model two years later. Particular year later, Glock Inc. was established in the US in Smyrna, Georgia. In the nearest few years, Glock expanded its 9 mm product line, developing the select-fire Glock 18 in 1986 and the Glock 17L and Glock 19 in 1988. In 1990 Glock became the first manufacturer to pitch models chambered for the .40 S&W cartridge, the Glock 22 and the Glock 23, beating Smith & Wesson to the marketplace with pistols for their own cartridge.
The Glock pistol idea was not the first to incorporate a plastic frame. Heckler & Koch used polymer for their VP70 au fait frame in 1970. HK's innovation of polymer frames and polygonal rifling seem to have been influential in the Glock design. Still earlier, Remington different their polymer-framed Nylon 66 Burglarize in 1959.