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Wills Wing, Inc. (legally Sport Kites, Inc) is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Orange, California and previously located in Santa Ana, California. The company specializes in the design and manufacture of hang gliders in the form of ready-to-fly aircraft, plus hang glider harnesses and accessories.[1]

Wills Wing, Inc.
TypePrivately held company
IndustryAerospace
Founded1973
FounderChris Wills, Bob Wills
Headquarters
Orange, California
,
United States
Key people
Linda Meier, Mike Meier and Steve Pearson
ProductsHang gliders, hang glider harnesses
Websitewww.willswing.com

The company was founded in 1973 by brothers Bob and Chris Wills.[2]

The company sells a line of hang gliders including training and beginner gliders, intermediate and competition wings.[1]


History


Dave Aldrich flies the Wills Wing Sport 3 over Mount Tamalpais California
Dave Aldrich flies the Wills Wing Sport 3 over Mount Tamalpais California

The company was formed as Sport Kites, Inc in 1973 and started doing business under the name Wills Wing in 1978.[3][2]

In 1973 Chris Wills took first place and Bob Wills won second place in the first US National Hang Gliding Championships. The next year Bob Wills won first place and Chris Wills took second place at the second US Nationals.[3][2]

Chris and Bob Wills' brother, Eric Wills, was killed in a hang gliding accident in 1974.[4][5]

Chris Wills left the company in 1976 to attend medical school and pursue a career as a physician. Bob Wills was killed in a hang gliding accident while making a Jeep commercial on 24 June 1977. The majority ownership of the company was then sold to Rob Kells, Linda and Mike Meier and Steve Pearson. Kells died of prostate cancer in 2008.[2][6]

By 1984 the company had become the largest hang glider manufacturer in North America and then later in the world.[3][2]

The company also provides Wills Wing U2 and T2 gliders to Tecma Sport of Saint-Pierre-en-Faucigny, France for the European market.[1][7][8]

A Wills Wing XC-185 hang glider is on display at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, in Ottawa, while another Wills Wing glider is in the US Southwest Soaring Museum in Moriarty, New Mexico.[3][9]

Wills Wing XC-185 on display in the Canada Aviation and Space Museum
Wills Wing XC-185 on display in the Canada Aviation and Space Museum

In 2012 Wills Wing Team Pilot Dustin Martin set a new world record for Cross Country Open Distance in a Hang Glider of 475 miles flying a Wills Wing T2C 144.[10]

In June, 2021 Wills Wing announced that they will be "winding down operations and preparing to shut down production at our Orange facility as part of a process of closing down the Company" with a "successor entity" to be formed in Valle do Bravo, Mexico.[11]


Aircraft


Wills Wing principal design engineer Steve Pearson test flying a new T2C 144
Wills Wing principal design engineer Steve Pearson test flying a new T2C 144
Wills Wing test pilot Ken Howells flies a Wills Wing U2C 160
Wills Wing test pilot Ken Howells flies a Wills Wing U2C 160
Wills Wing AT 123 paraglider
Wills Wing AT 123 paraglider
Wills Wing Eagle hang glider
Wills Wing Eagle hang glider

List of aircraft built by Wills Wing:

Hang gliders
Current Production
Out of Production
Paragliders

References


  1. Bertrand, Noel; Rene Coulon; et al: World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2003-04, page 47. Pagefast Ltd, Lancaster UK, 2003. ISSN 1368-485X
  2. Mike Meier. "A Brief History of Hang Gliding, Paragliding and Wills Wing". Wills Wing. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  3. "Wills Wing XC-185 - Canada Aviation and Space Museum". techno-science.ca. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  4. Wills, Maralys and Chris Wills (1992), Wings Like Eagles, Longstreet Press, Marietta, Georgia, United States. ISBN 1-56352-025-7
  5. "Soaring Above the Tragedy : Santa Ana Author Who Lost 2 Children in Hang-Gliding Accidents Recounts Her Family's Disasters and Triumphs". LA Times. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  6. "Wills Wing, Inc. - Rob Kells, In Memoriam". willswing.com. Archived from the original on 26 March 2015. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  7. Tecma Sport. "Tecma U2". tecma-sport.com. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  8. Tecma Sport. "Tecma T2". tecma-sport.com. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  9. US Southwest Soaring Museum (2010). "Sailplanes, Hang Gliders & Motor Gliders". Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  10. Sulzberger, A. G. "Two Men. One Sky. The Silent Realization of a Purer Form of Flight". Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  11. Steven Pearson, Mike and Linda Meier (2021). "A New Wills Wing". Retrieved 12 June 2021.


Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wills Wing.


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