Aviator Sunglasses: How Do You Choose?

When it comes to the purchase of a set of aviator sunglasses, many people don’t provide a thought about the lenses and just consider how “cool” they look once they hook them up to. While looks might seem being important, ale the lenses to supply adequate protection for your eyes is far more important.


An excellent couple of oversize aviator sunglasses starts with picking a the lenses. The lens material should have a uniform composition and be perfectly transparent. Additionally, the lenses has to be ground and treated so as to provide maximum defense against harmful uv radiation.

Which are the Choices In Lens Material?

Generally speaking you will find three choices in lens material:

Plastic
Polycarbonate
Glass
Initially the only real option for lenses was glass, but as technology improved plastic and then polycarbonate became available for making sunglass lenses. With several choices in the marketplace available it could be confusing concerning which will be best for you.

Plastic Lenses

Plastic lenses are becoming popular mainly because they may be light in weight and therefore much more comfortable to use. They eliminate the problem of glass lenses which sometimes slip down your nose and having to constantly push it well up.

Among the problems with plastic lenses, however, is because they can easily be scratched. To resolve this problem plastic lenses have a scratch resistant coating placed on the lens and, if kept clean, will continue to be scratch free for a long time.

Polycarbonate Lenses

The main advantage of polycarbonate lenses is they are thinner, lighter and shatterproof. Because these lenses are impact resistant you can drop a steel ball on the lens from quite a distance and the lens would not break or shatter.

Glasses with polycarbonate lenses are classified as safety glasses simply because they execute a congrats in protecting the eyes from injury. They may be impact-resistant as the lenses are constructed with an extremely soft, pliable material; however, they’ll scratch effortlessly without the right care.

Glass Lenses

Glass lenses weigh more than either plastic or polycarbonate lenses and so are scratch resistant eliminating the requirement for a scratch resistant coating. However, drop a set of glasses with glass lenses plus they most likely will shatter.

However, glass lenses provide the very best visual acuity. Visual acuity will be the acuteness or clearness of vision, meaning all you see through glass lenses is going to be sharper than with any other lens material.

Live view screen Displays (LCDs)

Today we have been surrounded with devices like smartphones, car dashboard displays and computer screens designed to use lcd tv displays to present information to all of us.

Because LCDs use a polarizing filter using a vertical axis the knowledge displayed on these screens can be challenging or impossible to see with polarized lenses. Polarized lens have been developed specifically to eliminate vertically polarized light waves, meaning wanting to view an Vast screen with polarized glasses or sunglasses is a concern.

The solution, of course, would be to wear aviator sunglasses which are not polarized. In reality, the sole advantage for wearing polarized sunglasses happens when you are on the water which allows you to see some depth to the water.

Your best option For Pilots

A pilot’s eyes are their most important asset, and pilots need to be able to see everything as clearly as you can, such as the LCD displays which give flight and navigation information to them from your aircraft’s panel.

This means that aviator sunglasses with non-polarized glass lenses are the absolute best choice for pilots. In reality, these would also be your best option for everyone who drives a vehicle having an LCD instrument panel also.

Recommended Manufacturers

Today the 3 leading manufacturers of non-polarized glass lens aviator sunglasses are:

American Optical Original Pilot Sunglasses
Randolph Engineering Aviator Sunglasses
Serengeti Aviator Sunglasses
Both American Optical and Randolph Engineering supply aviator sunglasses to the U.S. military, in my experience Randolph Engineering Aviator Sunglasses are desirable to more pilots than any other brand.

As a possible ATP pilot with an MBA running a business, the writer writes a regular blog about aviation called “All Things Aviation.” So that you can serve his community the author reviews pilot supplies for pilots.
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