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About Mike Meier

In brief

Mike Meier was a developmental, experimental and production test pilot of hang gliders for 45 years, flying the gliders Wills Wing designed and built. He joined the Society of Experimental Test Pilots in 1994 and was made a Fellow in 2026.

Background 

Mike Meier outdoors in the shade of trees, smiling, in sunglasses, a light jacket, a dark blue shirt and a turquoise bolo tie.
Mike Meier. Photo: Brad Hagen.
Mike running off a slope of tall dry grass under a blue, red and yellow hang glider, about to leave the ground.
Launching on a production test flight. Photo: Wills Wing staff.

Mike graduated from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1972 with a degree in physics and a minor in secondary education. After a year teaching physics and physical science in high school, he moved to California in 1973 and took up hang gliding in 1974.

He worked at Wills Wing in Orange, California, from April 1976 until the company closed its US operations in 2021, and became one of its owners and one of its three managing partners. In that time he flight-tested 492 prototype configurations, 127 of which went into production, and flew the production test flights of 6,355 gliders.

He holds a Master pilot rating from the United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association (USHPA) and has been a USHPA certified flight instructor. He is an FAA private pilot with single-engine land and glider ratings.

Mike was an Honorary Director of the United States Hang Gliding Association (USHGA, now USHPA) from 1980 to 1997 and served on its Strategic Planning Committee. He was president of the Hang Glider Manufacturers Association from 1982 to 1986, and again from 2003 until the association was dissolved on November 14, 2022. He represented the USHGA on FAA-related committees, among them the Part 103 Users Group at the Riverside FSDO, the ARAC working group in Washington, the USHGA Sport Pilot Task Force, the FAA Part 103 Working Group and the ASTM F37T subcommittee. He was lead technical writer of the ASTM F37.40 task group, which wrote the design standards for weight-shift-control aircraft that the FAA accepts as the airworthiness standards for weight-shift-control light sport aircraft in the United States.

From 1976 to 1987 he flew in competitions, was a top-ranked pilot, and flew for the 1981 US team at the FAI World Championships in Beppu, Japan.

Test flying 

In 45 years Mike flew experimental, developmental and production tests on Wills Wing’s hang gliders: flow separation studies, maximum roll rate tests, spin testing, and the final quality-control flight on gliders coming off the line.

Mike launching prone off a granite slab under a red, white, yellow and blue hang glider, with pines and Sierra peaks behind.
Production flight test at Glacier Point, Yosemite, 2007. Photo courtesy of Johnny French.
View along the top of a hang glider wing in flight, the sail covered in a grid of small yarn tufts, with hills and a town far below.
Flow separation study: the yarn tufts show where the airflow leaves the sail.
Camera view from the glider's keel: the pilot steeply banked, the horizon tilted sharply.
Maximum roll rate test.
Camera view from the keel of a red hang glider over mountains, the pilot shifted to one side.
Spin testing.
A row of hang gliders parked nose-down in the landing area.
Production gliders in the landing area after their test flights.

Photos: Mike’s own, from his 2015 flight-test video and slides; CC BY-SA 4.0 (License).

SETP 

Mike first got involved with SETP in 1992, co-presenting a paper with Mark Stucky at the national symposium on applying classical flight-test techniques to a modern high-performance hang glider. He applied for membership afterwards, on the strength of his experimental test work in hang gliders, and SETP accepted him as a member in 1994. He was made an Associate Fellow in 2018 and a Fellow in 2026.

By accepting my membership, the Society had, in effect, called my bluff. … And I had nothing. … Luckily, within about a year of coming to this realization, I had the good fortune to nearly kill myself while landing a hang glider.
SETP’s video for Mike’s induction as a Fellow, 2026, shown with SETP’s permission.
On stage at the SETP awards banquet, Mike in a dinner jacket shakes hands and receives his Fellow's certificate.
Made a Fellow, 2026. Photo: SETP.
The new Fellows lined up on stage under the SETP emblem, each holding a rolled certificate.
The Fellows of 2026. Photo: SETP.
Mark Stucky, in Marine Corps dress uniform, and Mike, in a dinner jacket, beside the SETP emblem on a clear lectern.
With Mark Stucky in 1992, the year they presented their paper together.
Mark Stucky and Mike, both in dinner jackets, standing in front of the SETP lectern.
And in 2026: Mark’s idea, to recreate the 1992 photo.

Induction photos: SETP’s, with permission. Photos with Mark Stucky: Mike’s collection.

Awards 

DateAward
2026Made a Fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.
February 2018Elected an Associate Fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.
March 2016The Rob Kells Memorial Award, given by the United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association for lifetime service to the hang gliding community.
July 2015Award of Appreciation from the Royal Australian Air Force 42 Wing for support of Squadron Safety Day.
May 2015Elected to the Rogallo Foundation Hall of Fame for career contributions to the development and promotion of the sport of hang gliding.
March 2015The Jack Northrop Award for the Most Outstanding Technical Paper presented at the 45th Annual West Coast Symposium of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, for Lessons Learned and Murphy’s Corollary.
April 2013Letter of Appreciation from Scaled Composites for Technical Assistance in helping the team to reach the milestone of the first powered flight in Spaceship 2.
March 2008National Aeronautic Association Safety Award, for making a significant contribution to the safety of the sport of hang gliding and paragliding.
October 2004ASTM Award of Appreciation, for work on development of technical standards for Light Sport Aircraft.
March 2003United States Hang Gliding Association Exceptional Service Award, for work on behalf of USHGA in the development of FAA regulations.
March 1994Elected to membership in the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.
February 1992Appointed FAA Accident Prevention Counselor, Riverside Flight Standards District Office (FSDO).
November 1990National Aeronautic Association Certificate of Honor, for making a significant contribution to the safety of the sport of hang gliding.
February 1986United States Hang Gliding Association Presidential Citation, for Outstanding Leadership of the Hang Glider Manufacturers Association and the USHGA Rating and Competition Programs.
1982Hang Glider Manufacturers Association Exceptional Merit Award, for leadership of the HGMA.

Where the paper has been presented 

Mike presented the paper fifteen times from 2015 to 2018, to test pilots, hang-glider pilots and aerospace companies, and discussed it on On Condition, the Flight Test Safety Committee’s podcast, in 2024. Next: the National Test Pilot School, Mojave, December 11, 2026.

The talk on video, what audiences said and more 

The full list of presentations, the 2015 Anaheim talk on video, and what audiences said are on Speaking.

Contact 

For speaking requests, briefing requests and corrections, email Mike at [email protected].

Text and Mike’s test-flying photos CC BY-SA 4.0; the other photos and the SETP video are credited where they appear and are not covered (License).