Original Item: Only One Kit Available. This is a very lovely, almost unissued B-8 goggles kit by the famed Polaroid! This set is in near excellent condition and appears to be complete.

The Polaroid Aviation Goggle Kit is a flier’s goggle unit with a wide vision, single-aperture frame, a quick-adjusting head strap and nine interchangeable eye protection and vision sharpening plastic lenses for a variety of seeing conditions.

Contents of the kit include:

• Goggle frame equipped with clear plastic lens. The flexible flange with its soft lining prevents air leaks and needling. The broad surface of the flange protects against flash burn and frostbite.
• Two spare clear lenses (XC92). Use these lenses when seeing conditions that do not warrant either green or amber lenses.
• Four green anti-glare lenses (XG30). The green lenses reduce overall glare. Use them when brilliance is excessive.
• Two amber lenses (XY68). The amber lenses reduce the effects of haze and increase the contrast of a target against its background. Use the amber lens when haze is likely to obscure objects below or on a dull day. Do not use it on bright days.

This is a wonderful kit of an iconic set of Polaroid Fliers Goggles! Come ready to complete your WWII Aviation Displays!

Polaroid During World War II

In 1939 Polaroid neared bankruptcy after their $1 million dollars rise in sale fell to over $100,000 in losses. If it wasn't for the World War II contracts, which saved creator and founder Land and his 240 employees, the company would have vanished.

By 1942 the wartime economy nearly tripled the companies size as they were handed over some of the war times largest projects with a contract of $7 million dollars.
Polaroid was in charge of designing and creating a lot of products for the Armed Forces, using tools similar to the ones that in the future would be used to create the first every instant camera. These devices included Infrared night viewing Device, Goggles, Lenses, Color filters for periscopes, Rangefinders and many more.

Polaroid designed the first ever 3-D technology that was used in a machine gun training unit. Students would operate a life-size anti aircraft gun against the 3D simulation of an attacking plane. These devices were crucial in training students for the logistics and the mental and emotional experience of being on battle ground. Reconnaissance planes were equipped to take 3-D Vector Graphs, which provided relief maps of enemy territory. When viewed with polarized glasses, the 3-D pictures exposed contours of guns, planes, and buildings that camouflage obscured in conventional photographs.

Although as the war began to wind down, so did the company's sales causing Land and his employees to find themselves in another economic downfall like in 1939. Destined to save his dream company Land began working on a new project- The Polaroid Camera. Using the technology he had used in designing the earlier war devices, Land went forth in saving his company.

Land worked tiredly off the clock to develop a model of the system. By 1946, however, the research on the film was far from complete. Nonetheless, Land announced early that year that the instant camera system would be demonstrated at the February 21, 1947 winter meeting of the Optical Society of America. Soon enough the new model which allowed Land to take an instant picture of himself at the Optical Society meeting was released. The image of him at this meeting soon made the front page news in the New York Times, was given a full page in Life magazine, and was splashed across the international press.

The cameras would go on to sell faster than they were being produced.