Original Pilot Aviator

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American Optical built the Original Pilot to a U.S. Air Force specification in 1958, and the aviator has stayed in production ever since, worn by Gemini and Apollo crews along the way. The bayonet temples are why the frame still exists in this shape: straight shafts that run flat against the head and slide under a flight helmet, where a curled earpiece binds. These carry the top of American Optical's lens range for the frame, polarized Calobar green mineral glass, ground rather than cast from resin and assembled in Vernon Hills, Illinois. Show more