Wills Wing

Last updated

Wills Wing, Inc.
Company type Privately held company
Industry Aerospace
Founded1973
FounderChris Wills, Bob Wills
Headquarters,
Key people
Linda Meier, Mike Meier and Steve Pearson
Products Hang gliders, hang glider harnesses
Website www.willswing.com

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]

Contents

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 Wills Wing Sport 3.jpg
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 hang glider.JPG
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 T2C 144.jpg
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 U2C 160.jpg
Wills Wing test pilot Ken Howells flies a Wills Wing U2C 160
Wills Wing AT 123 paraglider Wills Wing AT 123 paraglider.jpg
Wills Wing AT 123 paraglider
Wills Wing Eagle hang glider Wills Wing Eagle.jpg
Wills Wing Eagle hang glider

List of aircraft built by Wills Wing:

Hang gliders
Current Production
Out of Production
Paragliders

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hang gliding</span> Unpowered glider air sport

Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised, heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered with synthetic sailcloth to form a wing. Typically the pilot is in a harness suspended from the airframe, and controls the aircraft by shifting body weight in opposition to a control frame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fixed-wing aircraft</span> Heavier-than-air aircraft with fixed wings generating aerodynamic lift

A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air flying machine, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using aerodynamic lift. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft, and ornithopters. The wings of a fixed-wing aircraft are not necessarily rigid; kites, hang gliders, variable-sweep wing aircraft, and airplanes that use wing morphing are all classified as fixed wing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rogallo wing</span>

The Rogallo wing is a flexible type of wing. In 1948, Francis Rogallo, a NASA engineer, and his wife Gertrude Rogallo, invented a self-inflating flexible wing they called the Parawing, also known after them as the "Rogallo Wing" and flexible wing. NASA considered Rogallo's flexible wing as an alternative recovery system for the Mercury and Gemini space capsules, and for possible use in other spacecraft landings, but the idea was dropped from Gemini in 1964 in favor of conventional parachutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Rogallo</span> American aeronautical engineer

Francis Melvin Rogallo was an American aeronautical engineer inventor born in Sanger, California, U.S. Together with his wife, he is credited with the invention of the Rogallo wing, or "flexible wing", a precursor to the modern hang glider and paraglider. His patents were ranged over mechanical utility patents and ornamental design patents for wing controls, airfoils, target kite, flexible wing, and advanced configurations for flexible wing vehicles.

Kite types, kite mooring, and kite applications result in a variety of kite control systems. Contemporary manufacturers, kite athletes, kite pilots, scientists, and engineers are expanding the possibilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windsport</span>

A windsport is any type of sport which involves wind-power, often involving a non-rigid airfoil such as a sail or a power kite. The activities can be land-based, on snow, on ice or on water. Windsport activity may be regulated in some countries by aviation/maritime authorities if they are likely to interfere with other activities. Local authorities may also regulate activity in certain areas, especially on crowded beaches and parks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ultralight trike</span> Powered hang glider

An ultralight trike or paratrike is a type of powered hang glider where flight control is by weight-shift. These aircraft have a fabric flex-wing from which is suspended a tricycle fuselage pod driven by a pusher propeller. The pod accommodates either a solo pilot, or a pilot and a single passenger. Trikes grant affordable, accessible, and exciting flying, and have been popular since the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of hang gliding</span>

Hang gliding is an air sport employing a foot-launchable aircraft. Typically, a modern hang glider is constructed of an aluminium alloy or composite-framed fabric wing. The pilot is ensconced in a harness suspended from the airframe, and exercises control by shifting body weight in opposition to a control frame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Powered hang glider</span> Foot-launched powered hang glider

A foot-launched powered hang glider (FLPHG), also called powered harness, nanolight, or hangmotor, is a powered hang glider harness with a motor and propeller often in pusher configuration, although some can be found in tractor configuration. An ordinary hang glider is used for its wing and control frame, and the pilot can foot-launch from a hill or from flat ground, needing a length of about a football field to get airborne, or much less if there is an oncoming breeze and no obstacles.

Gliding flight is heavier-than-air flight without the use of thrust; the term volplaning also refers to this mode of flight in animals. It is employed by gliding animals and by aircraft such as gliders. This mode of flight involves flying a significant distance horizontally compared to its descent and therefore can be distinguished from a mostly straight downward descent like a round parachute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glider (aircraft)</span> Aircraft designed for operation without an engine

A glider is a fixed-wing aircraft that is supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against its lifting surfaces, and whose free flight does not depend on an engine. Most gliders do not have an engine, although motor-gliders have small engines for extending their flight when necessary by sustaining the altitude with some being powerful enough to take off by self-launch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schweizer SGS 2-12</span> Two-seat low-wing training glider

The Schweizer SGS 2-12 is a United States two-seat, low-wing, training glider built by Schweizer Aircraft of Elmira, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John W. Dickenson</span> Australian inventor (1934–2023)

John Wallace Dickenson was an Australian inventor, who developed some liquid flow measuring devices and designed a successful hang glider configuration, for which he was awarded the Gold Air Medal, the highest award given by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, the world governing body for air sports, aeronautics and astronautics world records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gliding</span> Recreational activity and competitive air sport

Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word soaring is also used for the sport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glider (sailplane)</span> Type of aircraft used in the sport of gliding

A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the leisure activity and sport of gliding. This unpowered aircraft can use naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to gain altitude. Sailplanes are aerodynamically streamlined and so can fly a significant distance forward for a small decrease in altitude.

The Purcell Flightsail or Flight Dynamics Flightsail is an experimental towed glider by Thomas H. Purcell, Jr. He sold plans in several publications for the tow-launched hung-mass controllable kite-glider. He flew first off water in late 1961 and then arranged things for off-land and landing on land. His efforts would find similarity echo later in early 1963 by the SkiPlane of Mike Burns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tecma Sport</span> French aircraft manufacturer

Tecma Sport is a French aircraft manufacturer based in Saint-Pierre-en-Faucigny and formerly in La Roche-sur-Foron. The company specializes in the design and manufacture of hang gliders and paragliders in the form of ready-to-fly aircraft. The company also makes ultralight trikes and hang glider harnesses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wills Wing XC</span> American hang glider

The Wills Wing XC is an American high-wing, single-place, hang glider that was designed and produced by Wills Wing of Santa Ana, California. Now out of production, when it was available the aircraft was supplied complete and ready-to-fly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wills Wing U2</span> American hang glider

The Wills Wing U2 is an American high-wing, single-place, hang glider, designed and produced by Wills Wing of Orange, California since 2003. The aircraft is supplied complete and ready-to-fly.

Airwave Gliders was an Austrian aircraft manufacturer based on the Isle of Wight and later in Fulpmes. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of hang gliders and paragliders.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Bertrand, Noel; Rene Coulon; et al: World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2003-04, page 47. Pagefast Ltd, Lancaster UK, 2003. ISSN   1368-485X
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Mike Meier. "A Brief History of Hang Gliding, Paragliding and Wills Wing". Wills Wing. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "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. (12 January 2013). "Two Men. One Sky. The Silent Realization of a Purer Form of Flight". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  11. Steven Pearson, Mike and Linda Meier (2021). "A New Wills Wing" . Retrieved 12 June 2021.