While some of the equipment dreamt up by Q is clearly fictional, there are some parallels between James Bond gadgetry and true-life spy equipment. The key difference between 007 and a real-life secret agent is in their overall approach to their missions. Spies in the real world are primarily focused on stealth and gathering information. More rarely, they are used as assassins, but even then they use subterfuge to quietly accomplish their deadly mission. So anything James Bond uses that fires missiles, uses acid, has concealed machine guns, launches with great velocity or simply explodes is unlikely to have a counterpart in real life.The glaring exception is his gun. The Walther PPK is, in fact, heavily favored by covert operatives even today. Originally designed for use by plainclothes East German police, Fleming replaced Bond's small-caliber Beretta with the Walther and a Smith & Wesson .38 at the request of Geoffrey Boothroyd. Boothroyd was a gun expert and Bond fan who wrote to Fleming in 1956 to recommend the use of more appropriate weapons. Fleming eventually honored Boothroyd by naming the character Q after him.True-life secret agents usually favor small-caliber handguns because they are easy to conceal. However, in situations where greater firepower, range or accuracy is needed, special rifles or machine guns can be made to fold down or disassemble into smaller components that are easy to hide. During World War II, the British Sten submachine gun was provided to French resistance operatives and other Allied spies -- it could be collapsed into three pieces for hiding. Guns can also be equipped with silencers, metal cylinders that baffle the rapid expansion of gases and greatly reduce the sound a gun makes when it fires. Another form of silent weapon is the crossbow. These weapons eliminate the need to smuggle bullets and don't produce a muzzle flash when fired.Spies have used very Bond-like concealed, single-shot weapons disguised as common objects. A tiny pistol that can fit into a belt buckle, a cigarette that could fire a single .22 caliber round when the operative pulled a string with his teeth, a single-shot pen gun and a wrist-holster that could fire with a single arm movement were all actually used. Guns were also concealed in flashlights, gloves, pipes, pencils, tubes of toothpaste and rolled up newspaper.
