Philip Wills

Philip Aubrey Wills CBE (26 May 1907 – 16 January 1978) was a pioneering British glider pilot. He broke several gliding records and was the 1952 Open Class World Champion. He remained a regular member of the British Team until 1958. He was second in command of the Air Transport Auxiliary during World War II. He was chairman of the British Gliding Association for 19 years and was awarded the CBE and the Lilienthal Gliding Medal for services to gliding.

Philip Wills was from a wealthy family, and at the age of 21 he was able to buy his first aircraft, a de Havilland DH.60 Moth. On 20 January 1929 he was badly injured when his Moth (G-EBPS) crashed at Duxford Aerodrome, in which the pilot was fatally injured. He later purchased a replacement Moth (G-EBOI)

He began gliding at the London Gliding Club in 1933, only shortly after the gliding movement started in the United Kingdom. He financed his activities with a shipping and export business. (He installed internal windows in all offices in case his staff were reading books in working hours.)

On 18 March 1934, he set two records in a DFS Professor glider; the British National Gain of Height gliding record at 3,800 feet at Dunstable Downs, and a British National Distance record with a flight of 56 miles from Dunstable Downs to Latchington, Essex. In doing so, he was just beaten to the first British Silver C Badge by Eric Collins, who already had the five-hour qualification. He received International Silver C Badge No. 45 shortly after. On 30 April 1938 he broke the British National Distance gliding record in his Göppingen Gö 3 Minimoa (BGA338), flying 209 miles from Heston Aerodrome to St Austell, Cornwall. In June 1938, he broke the British National Distance Gain of Height gliding record at 10,180 feet over Dunstable Downs, earning him the world's third Gold C Badge. On 1 July 1939, he again broke the height record at 14,170 feet

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