Maybe it’s the way you fly, you know, “ice cold, no mistakes.” On the other hand, maybe you’ve never even sat in a cockpit. After all, you don’t have to be Iceman to enjoy the perfect pair of aviator sunglasses. Though there’s no pilot’s license prerequisite to purchase a pair, this actually wasn’t always the case. In 1936, when aviator sunglasses were first released, the special model shades were only available to fighter pilots. Finally, after 2 years of deliberation, the large-lensed, thinly framed spectacles made their way onto the market for the general public to purchase. Ray-Ban, who originally concepted and created the aviator design, was soon emulated by fellow sunglass producing companies as the style grew into a nationwide fad.While Top Gun is perhaps the aviator’s most memorable pop-culture appearance to date, the movie actually marked a resurgence in the style’s popularity, having already become somewhat of a fashion staple decades earlier. Before Tom Cruise donned the shades as Maverick, real life war hero, General Douglas McArthur, was seen wearing aviators in newspapers across the country in 1944, after landing on the Filipino beach during World War II. MacArthur can be credited with put initially putting the Ray-Ban aviators on the map, while Cruise gave the brand a much needed reboot decades later. By the time Top Gun was actually released, however, Randolph Engineering served as the United States Armed Forces exclusive aviator supplier. Still, Ray-Ban remains the best selling brand of aviator sunglasses to this day, often among the higher end models carried by most sunglass shops. Read more on this Article!