You remember the visor. Gentex made Maverick’s helmet in Top Gun, and the silver mirror lens on a Thunderbirds pilot’s visor is Gentex technology too. It is a fourth-generation family company in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, that develops helmet systems and optics for the military.
An aviator fitted with the mirror lens Gentex makes for the Thunderbirds’ flight visors.
In September, Gentex and Randolph Engineering announced an aviator fitted with that lens. Limited to 600 pairs, they come in three colors, Air Force Blue, Satin Gunmetal and Matte Black, and cost $369 exclusively from.
The frame has its own service record. Randolph, a family company in Randolph, Massachusetts, has made eyewear since 1973 and has supplied the U.S. military since 1978; in 1982 the military contracted it directly to produce the HGU-4/P aviator. Randolph still describes a 200-step, military-spec build. Sixtysix featured one of its aviators in 2019.
Each pair ships with a Thunderbirds challenge coin, a case, a cleaning cloth and a collector’s box, and each purchase includes a donation to the Air & Space Forces Aid Society.
