Why commercial airline pilots now are allowed to........
 

allowed to wear corrective lenses while flying but the old-time aviation authorities requires pilots to have perfect vision?:confused: it baffles me anytime...

By statute, corrective lenses were OK - however your vision must be corrected to near 20/20. Anything below required a rare vision waiver. (US laws)

sorry for my ignorance..then where did the:confused: 'pilots must have perfect vision' notion come from??

Sorry BB400, I may have oversimplified my answer - - there was an uncorrected vision limitation pre-1980s (or so) for a Class 1 medical.

This is no longer a requirement.

There (are?) were limitations on USN and USAF fighter pilots having 20/20 vision - that rule had changed my career path for the better :ok:

Cheers

20/20 vision being perfect vision is a commonly held belief.

It is wrong (I believe:p )

20/20 vision mean that you can se at 20 feet what the average person can see at 20 feet. [= 6/6 in metres].

So 20/15 is better than 20/20 ie. you can see at 20 ft what Mr Average sees at 15 ft.

TopBunk - quite right.

See here: http://science.howstuffworks.com/question126.htm

I seem to remember my Doc telling me that it was the third line from the bottom of the chart that was 20/20. (Not certain about that).