American Classic 1939 Aviator ‘Sky Pilot’  Unisex

The Metal version of the Ray-Ban Aviator was patented by Bausch & Lomb in1939. It was developed to replace the antiquated flight goggles which were bulky and had problems fogging up. Fogging reduced visibility at high altitude. The newly designed Aviator style was a lighter, thinner design than previous flight goggles and allowed air flow behind the lenses to reduce fogging. This was accomplished by adding a Brow bar to maintain airspace between the wearers face and eyeglass. In combination with the new frame design, a new lens was developed to reduce the bright glare encountered by Pilots in flight without obscuring their vision. 

In 1953 Baush & Lomb introduced G-15 tempered glass lenses. These neutral gray/green lenses transmit 15% of incoming visible light whilst providing 'true' color and contrast.

As with other popular eyeglass styles, many frame manufacturers adopted their own Aviator frame styles with minor modifications. Popularity of the Military brow bar version prompted manufacturers to produce a civilian version of the Aviator sans brow bar. Both remain American Classics.

Worn by General MacArthur, Jim Morrison, Freddy Mercury, President Joseph Biden and Jerry Garcia, Leslie West many, many others.