Desktop Pilot Training Gets a Cost Reset: Wraith Systems Moves HOTAS Housings to Additive Manufacturing

A training problem that started in the cockpit

Wraith Systems has been in the business of bringing aircraft pilot training to the desktop for over 15 years. The company's origin story explains why it cares about fidelity in the first place.

"In 2006, a military veteran, along with his mechanical engineer friend, established a business that brought aircraft pilot training to the desktop."

That veteran was Jason McAlister, founder and CEO of Wraith Systems. McAlister is a former AV-8B Harrier pilot who later worked at Lockheed Martin, where he contributed to the development of a Pilot Training Aid for F-35 pilots. During that work, the training setup relied on the Thrustmaster F-16 stick and throttle system — hardware that did not provide adequate training for the aircraft in question. Wraith Systems set out to do better, producing flight representative desktop Hands-On Throttle-And-Stick (HOTAS) systems suitable for flight simulation and pilot training, including the F-35 Lightning II – X Grip Interceptor.

When the volumes stop justifying the tooling

For manufacturing professionals, this is the familiar crossover question: at what point does a production method stop making economic sense? Wraith Systems hit that inflection in 2023.

"As demand for its Hands-On Throttle-And-Stick (HOTAS) systems increased in 2023, however, a change was needed."

The volumes wouldn't quite make injection moulding viable — tooling costs against modest run rates rarely do. Machining might have proved effective, but developments in the 3D printing world caught McAlister's attention. Rather than force an existing process to fit the volume profile, the company changed the process to match the volume.

Additive steps in — and the numbers follow

Wraith Systems additively manufactured its HOTAS housings using technology from 3D Systems, and the outcome was direct and measurable in its impact.

"Having made the switch to additive, costs have come down considerably."

The broader lesson here is one the industry keeps re-learning: additive manufacturing doesn't need injection-moulding volumes to win. It wins precisely when the volumes rule out tooling-intensive processes and when machining's economics are merely "effective" rather than optimal. For a company whose product is a flight representative desktop device — where geometry and fidelity matter and production runs sit in an awkward middle band — the switch aligned the manufacturing method with both the technical requirements and the business case.