Case Study: Wills Wing achieves global market leadership in hang gliders with SOLIDWORKS

Soaring to Top of Hang Glider Market With SolidWorks and Amd Firepro Professional Graphics

Wills Wing, a Southern California hang glider manufacturer founded in 1973, faced the challenge of competing globally while maximizing limited resources and improving design-to-manufacturing efficiency. To meet this need the company adopted SolidWorks 3D design software (alongside AMD FirePro professional graphics) to replace legacy 2D tools and support in‑house CNC production and advanced visualization.

By implementing SolidWorks, Wills Wing accelerated development and improved design accuracy, enabling the company to grow from a single product to five model families and 15 glider configurations and become the world’s largest hang glider manufacturer. SolidWorks’ RealView visualization (with AMD FirePro) eliminated separate rendering steps, handled assemblies of 1,000 parts on a single workstation, and helped produce the glider that set the 475‑mile distance record in 2013.

Wills Wing

Steve Pearson

President