Sunscreen for Pilots: The Cockpit Is a UVA Problem

A cockpit windscreen blocks nearly all UVB and lets a large share of UVA through, so pilots sit in UVA-heavy light for hours with no sunburn to warn them. The sunscreen that fits the job covers deep into UVA, disappears instead of sitting on your face like a mask for a twelve-hour duty day, and stays out of your eyes when you sweat. Swellies is five ingredients, zinc oxide as the only active, a lightweight gel that sets, and water resistant for 40 minutes.

What the windscreen does, and does not, stop

The FAA's Civil Aerospace Medical Institute measured light transmittance through aircraft windscreens and found UVB transmittance under 1 percent for both glass and plastic. That part is handled. UVA is a different story: transmittance ranged from 0.41 percent to 53.5 percent depending on the material, with plastic attenuating more than glass.

That range is the whole point. Depending on what you fly and which window you sit beside, up to half the UVA hitting the aircraft reaches your skin.

A 2015 study in JAMA Dermatology put a number on it. Researchers measured UVA inside cockpits in flight and compared it against tanning beds. Flying for 56.6 minutes at 30,000 feet delivered the same UVA dose as a 20-minute tanning bed session.

Why altitude makes it worse

• Thinner air above you. The EPA puts the increase at about 2 percent more UV per 1,000 feet of elevation. At cruise, you are above most of the atmosphere that does the filtering.
• Cloud tops reflect. Flying above a solid deck means light arriving from below as well as above. Snow reflects as much as 80 percent of UV, and cloud tops behave in the same direction.
• UVA does not change much with season or weather. It is roughly as strong in January as July, which is why this is a year-round working condition rather than a summer one. More on that in UVA is the real winter sun problem.
• You will not feel it. UVB causes sunburn, and the windscreen removes nearly all of it. No sting, no redness, no cue to do anything about it.

Where it lands on you

Exposure in a cockpit is lopsided, and pilots know the look before they know the cause.

• One side of the face and neck. Left seat means a left-side bias, right seat the reverse. Over years in the same seat it shows.
• Hands and forearms. They sit on the yoke, the throttles and the glareshield, out in the open for the whole flight.
• Ears, and the part in your hair. The spots nobody covers.
• General aviation is the harder case. A bubble canopy or a plexiglass windscreen puts far more of you in direct light than an airliner's narrow glass, and a low-wing trainer on a summer ramp adds glare off the wing before you even take off.

What a sunscreen needs to do in a cockpit

• Cover deep into UVA. This is the whole job. Zinc oxide holds its coverage to about 380nm, which is most of the UVA range. Our own broad spectrum test came back at a critical wavelength of 381.67nm, and what that number means is in broad spectrum is a test, not a claim. How the two mineral filters compare on UVA reach is in zinc oxide vs. titanium dioxide.
• Leave your hands dry. A greasy film on your palms is a real problem on a yoke, a sidestick or a throttle quadrant. You want something that sets.
• It cannot feel like a mask. You are wearing this for a twelve-hour duty day, not a walk to the car. Thick mineral formulas sit on the face like a layer of paint, and the one you notice all day is the one you stop putting on. A lightweight gel that sets and then disappears is the difference between wearing sunscreen and owning sunscreen.
• It cannot sting your eyes. Preflight on a hot ramp, a climb out, and a formula that runs is in your eyes on short final, which is the worst possible moment to be blinking through it. Chemical filters and fragrance travel in sweat. Minerals that stay put do not. More on the mechanism in sunscreen that doesn't burn your eyes.
• Small enough for a flight bag. Reapplying every couple of hours on a long leg means carrying it, which rules out a beach bottle.
• A short ingredient list. Fewer things to react to when you are stuck with it for a twelve-hour duty day.

Where Swellies fits

Swellies was built for people who are outside for a living, and a cockpit is its own version of that.

• Non-nano zinc oxide at 21 percent, the only active. It covers UVA and UVB on its own, and UVA is what makes it through your windscreen.
• Iron oxides add a sheer tint and filter visible light, the part of the spectrum that most sunscreens ignore entirely.
• No oils, no silicones, no water. It dries down to a light film instead of sitting slick, so your grip on the controls is your grip on the controls.
• It wears like nothing. Dextrin Palmitate turns the formula into a breathable gel that sets into a light film, so it does not read as a mask through a long duty day.
• No fragrance, no chemical filters, no water. The three things that travel into your eyes with sweat are the three things that are not in it.
• SPF 46, water resistant 40 minutes, in a 50ml airless pump that fits a flight bag and doses the same amount every press.

The same case applies to cabin crew on the same aircraft, and to anyone whose working day happens behind glass. Car windscreens behave much like aircraft glass: UVB mostly stopped, UVA largely not.

Frequently asked questions

Do pilots need sunscreen?

Yes. Aircraft windscreens block nearly all UVB but transmit a significant share of UVA, so exposure in a cockpit is UVA-heavy and produces no sunburn to signal it. A 2015 study in JAMA Dermatology found that 56.6 minutes at 30,000 feet delivered the same UVA as a 20-minute tanning bed session.

Does airplane glass block UV?

It blocks UVB almost entirely. FAA measurements put UVB transmittance under 1 percent for both glass and plastic windscreens. UVA is different, with transmittance ranging from 0.41 percent to 53.5 percent depending on the material. Plastic attenuates more UVA than glass.

What is the best sunscreen for pilots?

A mineral sunscreen with zinc oxide as the only active, because zinc covers deep into UVA, in a texture light enough that you forget it is on, with nothing in it that runs into your eyes when you sweat. Swellies is five ingredients with 21 percent non-nano zinc oxide, SPF 46, fragrance-free, and water resistant for 40 minutes.

Why do pilots get a tan on one side?

Because exposure in a cockpit is one-sided. Whichever seat you fly, the window beside you delivers most of the UVA, so one side of the face, neck and forearm takes the load over years of flying.

Does altitude increase UV exposure?

Yes. The EPA puts it at roughly 2 percent more UV for every 1,000 feet of elevation, because there is less atmosphere overhead to absorb it. Cloud tops below the aircraft also reflect light back upward.

How often should a pilot reapply sunscreen?

About every two hours of exposure, and after heavy sweating, which on a hot ramp happens before you ever level off. A 50ml pump is small enough to keep in a flight bag for the second application on a long leg.

Five ingredients. Zinc oxide to 380nm, no fragrance, nothing slick on your hands. Shop Swellies SPF 46 →