Aviator Sunglasses: How can you Choose?

When considering buying a couple of aviator sunglasses, a lot of people don’t provide a thought about the lenses and simply consider how “cool” they are after they use them. While looks might appear to become important, the ability of the lenses to supply adequate protection for the eyes is far more important.


A quality couple of oversize aviator sunglasses begins with the selection of the lenses. The lens material must have a uniform composition and be perfectly transparent. Furthermore, the lenses must be ground and treated in a way as to provide maximum defense against harmful uv radiation.

Do you know the Choices In Lens Material?

In most cases you will find three choices in lens material:

Plastic
Polycarbonate
Glass
At first the only real selection for lenses was glass, but as technology improved plastic after which polycarbonate became available for making sunglass lenses. With several choices available on the market available it may be confusing regarding which would be good for you.

Plastic Lenses

Plastic lenses have become popular mainly because they are light-weight and for that reason more at ease to put on. They remove the problem of glass lenses which sometimes slip down onto your nose inside them for hours to constantly push it well up.

Among the difficulties with plastic lenses, however, is that they could be scratched. To fix this challenge plastic lenses possess a scratch resistant coating put on the lens and, if kept clean, will stay scratch free for some time.

Polycarbonate Lenses

The benefit of polycarbonate lenses is that they are thinner, lighter and shatterproof. Because they lenses are impact resistant you could drop a steel ball on the lens from quite a distance and also the lens wouldn’t normally break or shatter.

Glasses with polycarbonate lenses are classified as safety glasses simply because they perform a good job in protecting your eyes from injury. They may be impact resistant as the lenses are made from an extremely soft, pliable material; however, they are going to scratch quickly without correct care.

Glass Lenses

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

However, glass lenses supply the very best visual acuity. Visual acuity will be the acuteness or clearness of vision, which suggests whatever you see through glass lenses will be sharper compared to any other lens material.

Lcd tv Displays (LCDs)

Today we have been surrounded with devices like smart phones, car dashboard displays and computer screens designed to use live view screen displays to present information to all of us.

Because LCDs utilize a polarizing filter with a vertical axis the information displayed on these screens can be challenging or impossible to see with polarized lenses. Polarized lens are specially designed to eliminate vertically polarized light waves, which suggests trying to view an LCD screen with polarized glasses or sunglasses is a problem.

The answer, obviously, would be to wear aviator sunglasses that are not polarized. Actually, the sole advantage for wearing polarized sunglasses happens when happen to be on water which enables you to see some depth in to the water.

The best option For Pilots

A pilot’s eyes are their most significant asset, and pilots have to be able to see everything as clearly as you can, like the LCD displays which provide flight and navigation information in their mind from your aircraft’s panel.

Which means aviator sunglasses with non-polarized glass lenses will be the absolute best choice for pilots. Actually, these would also be your best option for anyone who drives a vehicle having an LCD instrument panel also.

Recommended Manufacturers

Today the three 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 towards the U.S. military, in my experience Randolph Engineering Aviator Sunglasses are liked by more pilots than any other brand.

As an ATP pilot having an MBA running a business, the writer writes a daily blog about aviation called “All Things Aviation.” To be able to serve his community the author reviews pilot supplies for pilots.
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