Flying Eyes Optics is revolutionizing the industry through innovative pilot eyewear and sunglasses designed for comfort under helmets and headsets. As a company dedicated to creating high-quality eyewear, Flying Eyes Optics offers a range of products suitable for pilots, motorcyclists, and other adventurers who need to wear helmets or headsets for extended periods of time.
Based in Austin, Texas, the company celebrates its 10-year anniversary in August 2023. Founded by a pilot with over 25 years of experience, the glasses are engineered to provide maximum comfort, functionality, and durability. Dean Siracusa, the founder of Flying Eyes Optics, invested heavily in research and development to create eyewear that would enhance the user’s experience, not hinder it.
“I was tired of the pain and noise leaks that you get from regular glasses and decided to do something about it,” said Siracusa at the Flying Eyes booth at April’s Sun ‘n Fun Aerospace Expo in Lakeland, Florida.
Eyewear and headgear work in tandem to deliver sensory information to the pilot’s eyes and ears, yet the two pieces of equipment did not play well together until recent eyewear innovations. Under a headset’s clamping force, glasses can dig into the wearer’s temples, leading to headaches after an extended time in the air. Similarly, the rigid and thick frames found in traditional eyewear fight against the headset’s cups, reducing the effectiveness of top headsets’ active noise-reduction capabilities.
The Design: Flexibility and Thinness for Comfort and Convenience
The road to more comfortable eyewear started with a pair of sunglasses attached to a thin strap at the typical location for a hinge. However, this design was still not convenient enough for regular use under headsets since removing the glasses required the removal of the headset. Siracusa went back to the drawing board, where his efforts eventually led to a unique polymer found in aerospace manufacturing.
The material, dubbed Resilamide™, gave Flying Eyes frames the flexibility and thinness that allows for seamless compatibility with any headgear. The newly designed temples not only sat under headgear for hours at a time without pain but slipped on and off without requiring any headset or helmet movement.
In addition to comfort and convenience with this modern eyewear, headsets gain increased functionality when paired alongside Flying Eyes. The millimeter-thin frames ensure the pilot consistently achieves the best value from their headset or helmet by maintaining a tighter seal around their ears. With the seal preserved, enjoy the full effectiveness of active noise-reducing headsets, making this eyewear fantastic for your ears as well.
Equally important, the lenses received as much thought and attention to function as the frames. Keeping the cockpit experience in mind, most Flying Eyes lenses are non-polarized. While polarization is great for reducing glare off of reflective surfaces, such as the water when fishing, polarized lenses can blur out screens when viewing them from certain angles and increase the difficulty in viewing air traffic.
Creating Eyewear for All
The Flying Eyes product line originally offered sunglasses exclusively but quickly expanded to include lens options such as bifocals and prescription glasses. Glasses wearers can even enjoy prescriptions with magnetic, clip-on sunglasses that conveniently turn your clear glasses into shades depending on what you need!
Flying Eyes standard sunglasses have polycarbonate lenses, making them scratch-resistant and shatterproof. Find a Flying Eyes booth at an air show, and the staff will be happy to bend the temples and invite you to do the same shortly before trying them on to experience the unique flexibility of Flying Eyes for yourself. Pilots and non-pilots often marvel at Flying Eyes glasses’ ability to survive tumbles, let alone run over by a plane.
For any situation that does in a pair, Flying Eyes offers a lifetime frame warranty to cover any damages to the frame itself. Customers also receive a base 90-day lens warranty, extended up to a full year when registering their pair online with instructions provided after purchase. To further serve the aviation community, Flying Eyes is also happy to swap out any lenses in person at events like EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, Sun ‘n Fun, or the Reno Air Races. If you can’t attend these events, the Flying Eyes customer support team is ready to assist with any eyewear issue.
The Flying Eyes Pilot Community
Since the inception of Flying Eyes, support from the aviation community continues to be a source of inspiration. The aforementioned events allow the team to meet and serve hundreds of pilots seeking comfortable eyewear. At a Flying Eyes booth, we invite you to peruse the expansive selection of frames and lenses. Once you determine your favorite, the assembly of your custom pair starts and is ready in minutes.
In addition, Flying Eyes hosts meet and greets at these air shows with creators in aviation, connecting fans with many of the individuals who inspired their journey into the skies. These schedules are on Flying Eyes’ social media pages, @FlyingEyesWorld on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, before the event. Followers of the pages enjoy frequent posts of fellow aviation enthusiasts’ adventures alongside demonstrations of Flying Eyes’ convenience and durability.
Flying Eyes offers specialized glasses that enhance the aviation experience and seamlessly integrate with headsets, catering not just to private and commercial pilots, but aspirational aviators as well. These unique, virtually indestructible frames offer a lifetime warranty and are largely nonpolarized and shatterproof. The comfort under the headsets remains unmatched. Flying Eyes, founded by pilots and designed for pilots, is constantly improving due to interactions and feedback from pilots online and in person throughout the year.
For more on Flying Eyes Optics’ innovative pilot eyewear and sunglasses, visit Flying Eyes Optics and check out FLYING’s reviews of their products, including their Cooper Aviator.
