Flying high in aviator sunglasses
Tom Cruise may have made aviators look cool when he played the ace fighter pilot in the ’80s classic “Top Gun,” but aviator sunglasses have been around a lot longer than Mr. Mission Impossible. Cruise may jump up and down on a couch in anger at this, but it’s a fact: Real Air Force pilots have been wearing classic aviator sunglasses almost as long as planes have existed. After all, they are called aviators!
Classic pilot sunglasses first emerged in the 1930s, when airplanes became an important part of the modern United States military. That was when pilots were still flying propeller planes, but they were already earning a reputation for being renegades and daredevils, and they needed a special pair of sunglasses to set them apart from your average soldier, your average man for that matter.
Aviators triumphed during World War II, when pilots needed high-performance goggles to fight in the skies of Europe and Asia. They came with impact-proof lenses, so they could take a beating and not crack. And for good looks, they came with classic gold frames and dark lenses. Think how handsome the US pilots must have been with their khaki pants, hair slicked back like Fonzi, and a couple of these beauties on their faces!
However, the style traditionally associated with aviators didn’t make its first real debut until 1958. Back then, its official military name was Flight Goggle 58. That name, of course, doesn’t have much marketing potential. , but they worked very well. They protected pilots’ eyes from the sun, provided clear vision in case of dogfights or other important missions, and to top it all off, they were extremely comfortable on long flights.
It’s incredible to think about it, but these original aviators were so popular with pilots that the most distinguished pilots of them all, NASA astronauts, wore them on the famous 1969 moon landing. Because of this famous feat, aviator sunglasses are part of the exhibit at the Smithsonian museum in Washington, DC
And aviators weren’t just the sunglasses of choice for soldiers and lieutenants and captains in the US Navy and Air Force. Even higher-ups appreciated the glare protection as well as the style of the sunglasses. aviator sunglasses. None other than General Douglas MacArthur, famous for the Japanese campaign and the Korean War, sported a dapper pair of aviators.
How were they different from everyday aviators? Well, General MacArthur wouldn’t wear just any pair of glasses. His had a more distinctive teardrop frame shape and featured the classic gold-rimmed dark glasses. It was no wonder that with the cigarette dangling from his mouth, the hat lopsided on his head, the general’s stars on his shoulder, and, of course, the dark shadows over his eyes, MacArthur was a man to be reckoned with.