| Wills Wing, Inc. | |
| Type: | Privately held company |
| Foundation: | 1973 |
| Founder: | Chris Wills, Bob Wills |
| Hq Location City: | Orange, California |
| Hq Location Country: | United States |
| Key People: | Linda Meier, Mike Meier and Steve Pearson |
| Industry: | Aerospace |
| Products: | Hang gliders, hang glider harnesses |
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]
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]
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]
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]
List of aircraft built by Wills Wing: