The Yankee Air Museum was able to gain control of approximately 144,900 square feet of the plant,[54] and plans to develop a permanent home for the museum. Ford production chief Charles Sorensen, driving force behind the B-24 program, possessed a crusaders faith and fervor in the primacy and benefits of mass production, and had the bona fides to back it up. [34] The B-24 holds the distinction of being the most produced heavy bomber in history. The Willow Run bomber plant made aviation, industrial and social historyalong with new B-24s by the hour. During that time, the Ford Motor Company produced almost half of the B-24s built--8,685 out of 19,256. Despite intensive design efforts led by Ford production executive Charles E. Sorensen,[30] the opening of the plant still saw some mismanagement and bungling, and quality was uneven for some time. Do you support unions, and are they still relevant? For this reason, a series of Air Technical Service Command modification centers were established for the incorporation of these required theater changes into new Liberators following their manufacture and assignments. Public bus lines offered 35 daily trips from Detroit, while private carriers offered 130. [21], In addition to the Willow Run Lodge and Village housing projects, another community named Parkridge Homes was also built in 1943 to house African-American Willow Run employees. Fifty variants of the aircraft were dispatched to allies throughout the world from these sites. You cant expect a blacksmith to make a watch overnight, When Cherry Hill outgrew the little chapel and decided to build a new church, it sold the chapel to the Belleville Presbyterian Church for one dollar in July 1978. Sociologist and professor Lowell Juilliard Carr and James Edson Stermer of the University of Michigan studied the sociological conditions at Willow Run arising from the wartime surge in the worker population in their book of 1952. Only 56 airplanes were built in all of 1942. The Ford Motor Company's Willow Run Bomber Plant began production in 1942 and continued until June 28, 1945. The Willow Run Lodge dormitories accommodated 3,000 single women and men, while Willow Run Village consisted of 2,500 family housing units. [3][4], Also, Henry Ford was cantankerous and rigid in his ways. MARC and WRL produced innovations, including the first ruby laser and operation of the ruby maser, as well as early research into antiballistic missile defense and advanced remote sensing. He may have been right. Summary. Willow Run is an Albert Kahn-designed World War II bomber plant near Ypsilanti, Michigan. After nearly 60 years at the site, GM ended its Willow Run operations in 2010. Efforts to desegregate Willow Run Lodge and Village and build additional integrated housing were rebuffed by the Detroit Housing Commission and the National Housing Agency,[25] so noted African-American architect Hilyard Robinson was contracted to design an 80-unit community. Willow Run, also known as Air Force Plant 31, was a manufacturing complex in Michigan, United States, located between Ypsilanti Township and Belleville, built by the Ford Motor Company to manufacture aircraft, especially the B-24 Liberator heavy bomber. The water is treated in a modern treatment plant completed in 1939. For Our Members-. Cafeterias provided meals to administrative workers in the plant's offices. With the weight reduction and more powerful engines, it also had a much longer range than earlier models. The main building would be more than a mile long with dual, parallel assembly lines. Engineering Photographic Department, United States, Michigan, Charter Township of Ypsilanti, Ford Motor Company. Meanwhile, Ford was savaged in the Detroit press because it took too long. Construction on the Bomber Plant began in March, 1941. The plant was the embodiment of America's "Arsenal of Democracy" -- the enormous manufacturing capacity so vital to the Allies' victory. Rivet gun operator Rosemary Will from Pulaski County, KY, appeared in a Ford promotional film, personifying thousands of women in the nations defense industry, collectively known as Rosie the Riveter. Inspection of more than a thousand separate tubing pieces composing the fuel, hydraulic, de-icing and other systems in a bomber is a highly important job. What is your previous experience with unions? Employees Assembling Bomber at Willow Run Plant, March 1943. The university operated the Michigan Aeronautical Research Center (MARC), later known as Willow Run Laboratories (WRL), from 1946 to 1972. Its goal was to apply auto-making mass-production principles to . At its peak, Willow Run employed more than 42,000 people. Women represented approximately one third of the workers at Ford Motor Company's Willow Run plant during World War II. The building is currently being used to house and protect of the Museum's large aircraft . Boyshad time for recreation as well as work, each camp had a baseball diamond and the boys participated in a softball league, there was also volleyball and handball, movies were shown, and each camp also hosted harvest dances, inviting nearby high school students to join. Copyright 2023. Equities Group Holdings offered to buy the former Powertrain plant from the RACER Trust. [3][4] Willow Run's Liberator assembly line ran until May 1945, building almost half of all the Liberators produced. Ford created a permanent jig into which wings could be moved in and out by overhead crane. Years later, that stretch would become a section of I-94. GMs Chevrolet Division assembled rear-engine Corvairs in a converted warehouse on the grounds during a 10-year run beginning in 1959. Since the 2010 closure of Willow Run Transmission, the factory complex has been managed by the RACER Trust, which controls the properties of the former General Motors. Perhaps, when peace returned, customers would remember Ford's achievement when it came time to shop for a new car. [36][38], Once production began, it became difficult to introduce changes dictated by field experience in the various overseas theaters onto the production line in a timely fashion. Ford had no say in the matter; production chaos ensued. The first of these apartments were ready for occupancy in August 1943. The bugs were eventually worked out of the manufacturing processes, and by 1944, Ford was rolling a Liberator off the Willow Run production line every 63 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Workers on the factory floor could purchase meals from lunch wagons that traveled the facility. Join Ernst Neumayr, Channel Development Manager from Universal Robots, and Jeremy Crockett, Business Manager for Automation from Atlas Copco, and discover how cobots can build your business and increase productivity in your manufacturing facility without multiplying the complexity of your processes! . However, in October 1941, Ford received permission from Consolidated and the Army to assemble complete Liberators on its own at its new Willow Run facility. The worksite Sorensen chose was a 1,875-acre Ford-owned tract that had been a farm camp for boys whose fathers were killed or disabled in World War I. Kahn had designed the Rouge and hundreds of other manufacturing facilities over a long and storied career. The bomber plant produced its first B-24J in April 1944; 1587 were built at Willow Run. Every fluorescent light bulb in the plant must be taken out before the building can be torn down. All Rights Reserved BNP Media. The others, completed in the 1930s, were located in Dearborn, Michigan (site of the Fords' Fair Lane estate); Sudbury, Massachusetts; two in Richmond Hill, Georgia (the Fords' winter home); Macon, Michigan; and Willow Run. AskUs", "Oral History Interview with John W. Snyder", "Ford May Convert Willow Run Into Huge Tractor Plant", "History of the original Willow Run Village", "They may save our honor, our hopesand our necks", AFHRA Document 00155775 1 Concentration Command History, AFHRA Document 00150138 AAFTC Technical Training Command, "Tucson International Airport's Historic Hangars", "History of the Willow Run Plant, Part 3", "Preservation group gets extension to raise money for historic Willow Run factory", "Willow Run bomber plant preservationists get more time to reach goal", "Yankee Air Museum signs deal for part of Willow Run Bomber Plant", "YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP: RACER Trust reaches demolition, development agreements for Willow Run plant", "Death of a factory: inside the Willow Run GM Powertrain plant for the last time", "Willow Run assembly plant demolition proceeding", "A Future NEW Home for the Yankee Air Museum", Detroit Edison Company Willis Avenue Station, Michigan Bell and Western Electric Warehouse, Piquette Avenue Industrial Historic District, Frederic M. Sibley Lumber Company Office Building, List of Registered Historic Places in Michigan, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Willow_Run&oldid=1134554587, Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States, Motor vehicle assembly plants in Michigan, United States home front during World War II, Michigan State Historic Sites in Washtenaw County, Michigan, Defunct manufacturing companies based in Michigan, Articles with dead external links from September 2020, Short description is different from Wikidata, Infobox mapframe without OSM relation ID on Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, military draft each month 8,200 workers drafted into military service, school the Aircraft Apprentice School had up to 8,000 students per week completed training and reported for work, dimensions More than 3,200 feet long and 1,279 feet across at its widest point, subassemblies parts production and subassemblies at almost 1,000 Ford factories and independent suppliers, This page was last edited on 19 January 2023, at 07:10. It's all narrated with a fantastic mid-Atlantic accent that perfectly fits the . It also provided a final inspection of the aircraft and made any appropriate final changes; i.e., install long-range fuel tanks, remove unnecessary equipment, and give it a final flight safety test. The 1st CC was responsible for completing the organization and equipment of tactical and combat bombardment squadrons prior to their deployment to the overseas combat theaters. [11], Later in 1953, after a fire on August 12 destroyed General Motors' Detroit Transmission factory in Livonia, Michigan, the Willow Run complex was first leased and then later sold to GM. The main building's "L" shape prevented its crossing into neighboring Wayne County. Sorensen could not guarantee that precision parts built by Ford would fit in airplanes built by Consolidated under those conditions. Each kit -- consisting of 80 percent of the parts for a finished B-24 -- was shipped via two tractor-trailers. Paperwork was handled, necessary specific B-24 life support equipment was issued and some technical training for supporting the aircraft accomplished. For the next six months, Sorensen shuttled 70-man teams of engineers and draftsmen back and forth on 2,300-mile trips from Ford headquarters to the Consolidated works in San Diego to immerse themselves in B-24 design, engineering, parts and components. [3][41], Ford had switched over to the single-tailed B-24N in May 1945, but the end of the war in Europe in the same month brought a rapid end to Liberator production; the contract with Ford was officially terminated on 31 May 1945 and orders for 5168 unbuilt B-24N-FO bombers were cancelled as well. Riveting was an essential craft at Willow Run. Ultimately, more than seven million square feet of floor space were completed for B-24 production at Willow Run. [55] By mid-2014, the majority of the facility had been demolished and cleared. After nearly a year of work, the cost to keep the plant shuttered and standing is $7 million annually. Lewis, charged with dismantling the facility, has found it's taken more detective work than he thought to shut the plant down. Named "Lily's Pad",[53] the break spot was equipped with posters that catered to the male fantasy, an air conditioning unit, rope lights, a TV and a list of restaurant takeout phone numbers. Changeovers required onerous delays and costly retooling. Factory golf and bowling leagues provided additional opportunities for relaxation. For those unable to endure a long commute, the federal government constructed housing on nearby farmland purchased from Henry Ford. Working with architect Albert Kahn, Ford officials envisioned a massive factory with bombers built on a moving line, just like Ford's automobiles. That was the schedule six days a week. The B-24 Liberator was a prolific bomber that was operated by multiple branches of the United States military as well as other Allied forces in the European and Pacific . This was done at Willow Run by 1st Concentration Command (1st CC). Handcrafted versions were pressed into service in England, but the San Diego company lacked resources and methods for high-volume production of the largest, most complex airplane ever designed. Willow Run produced 739,000 cars as part of Kaiser-Frazer and Kaiser Motors, from 1947 through 1953, when after years of losses, the company (now called Kaiser Motors after Frazer's exit from the partnership) purchased Willys-Overland and began moving its production at Willow Run to the Willys plant in Toledo, Ohio. Labor shortages made women essential to war industries, and the government actively recruited them to join the workforce. The president and his advisers were convinced that long-range, high-altitude heavy bombers would be the decisive weapon in a war dominated by air power and industrial muscle. Modifications resulted from lessons learned in fighting fronts and from the need to modify the plane for its multiple roles. . They would be built elsewhere. At last Willow Run hit its stride in 1944. Although the Ford Trimotor had been a success in the 1920s, the company had since shied away from aviation, and initially, Ford was assigned to provide B-24 components with final assembly performed by Consolidated at its Fort Worth plant, or by fellow licensee Douglas Aircraft at its Tulsa, Oklahoma, plant. The B-24 Bomber, officially known as the B-24 Liberator, was designed by Consolidated Aircraft Co., San Diego, California. The ungainly aircraft flew faster (300 mph) than the sleeker B-17, carried heavier payloads (four tons of bombs, later increased to six tons), and had greater range (3,000 miles). At its peak, Willow Run employed more than 15,000 women -- some 35 percent of its total staff. Skeptics dismissed mass production of a plane this enormous and advanced as a carmakers fantasy that would crash and burn when repeated design changes disrupted assembly lines and junked expensive tooling. Sorensen and his team carefully planned the new facility to the last detail. "C-SPAN Cities Tour - Ann Arbor: Willow Run Bomber Plant", GM Powertrain plant and engineering center, Environmental Research Institute of Michigan, "Willow Run and the Arsenal of Democracy", "Willow Run Bomber Plant, Beginning Construction, 1940", "How Ford's Willow Run Assembly Plant Helped Win World War II", "Former GM Willow Run plant attracts $9 million offer from redevelopers", "Former GM Willow Run plant may be demolished", "Willow Run | Detroit Historical Society", "Do you have any information on Camp Legion and Camp Willow Run? The Yankee Air Museum acquired a portion of the plant, for preservation and exhibit purposes, in 2013. Following the success of the Save the Bomber Plant campaign, the Museum purchased a portion of the Willow Run Bomber Plant that produced B-24 Liberators during World War Two. In 2009, General Motors announced that it would shut down all operations at the GM Powertrain plant and engineering center in the coming year.[6]. The bombings curbed Germany's manufacturing capabilities and wore down its citizens' morale. Mr. Ford's steadfast leadership helped the company to make good on its promise. In addition, Henry Ford refused on principle to hire women. It also required the installation of two turntables to turn airplane fuselages 90 degrees near the end of the assembly line. Another large dormitory project, containing 1,960 rooms and known as West Lodge, was also ready for tenants at that time. ft. building, which later became the GM Powertrain facility. "[12], Henry and Clara Bryant Ford dedicated a series of churches, the chapels of Martha and Mary as a perpetual tribute to their mothers, Mary Ford and Martha Bryant. As the problems continued into 1943, critics took to calling the plant "Will it Run.". The story of Willow run and the production miracle that produced as many as 25 B-24 bombers every day. A ghostly, decaying reminder of the industrial and military history echoing within its cavernous expanse, Willow Run was demolished in 2014. The company resumed automobile production within a week. To their dismay they discovered that engineering drawings for the big bomber were uselessincomplete and filled with discrepancies and unfamiliar signs and symbols. They were producing a custom-made plane put together as a tailor would cut and fit a suit of clothes. In some places, water cascades from the rafters of the buildingsending a shower on to the oily floor below. The copper wiring and electrical fixturesthe veins and arteries of the plantare the first to be stripped away. One pundit referred to it as a sprawling mass of industrial ambition. Folklore has it that Henry Ford decreed that the eastern perimeter of the windowless, L-shaped edifice not spill over into Wayne County, home to Detroit and all those rascally Democrats and union organizers. [3][41], The B-24H was the first variant produced by Ford at Willow Run in large numbers that went into combat. Winston Churchill called his specially outfitted B-24 the Commando. The Willow Run bomber plant, the world's largest factory and one of America's most-publicized plants, is on the outskirts of Ypsilanti, . The airfield passed into civilian hands after the war and is now controlled by Wayne County Airport Authority. But just when that milestone seemed possible, the government drastically cut its order for B-24s. This young employee at the giant Willow Run plant uses her tiny flashlight to discover any internal defects in the tubing. [13], The Willow Run chapel of Martha and Mary now stands a few miles from where it was originally constructed, on property that used to be owned by Henry Ford's Quirk Farms. By 1945, Ford produced 70% of the B-24s in two 9-hour shifts. Among the 37 workers surveyed, nearly 10 percent were Negroes.4 Men as young as 19 and as old as 71 were employed; the age range for . Part of the airport complex operated at various times as a research facility affiliated with the University of Michigan, and as a secondary United States Air Force Installation. Mass production of B-24s must rely on continuous assembly flow, or they couldnt be built at all. [7], For a period of time before the eventual demolition of Willow Run Assembly, portions were used as a warehouse, about a quarter of which was leased by GM as a facility for parts distribution.[45]. Even with people driving 100 miles or renting every spare room between Ann Arbor and Grosse Pointe, the sheer size of Willow Run led inevitably to a housing shortage. Some 2,500 were parked in an Arizona desert awaiting the day when their aluminum skin and innards would be smelted into ingots for production of coffee percolators, toasters, pots and pans, and myriad other consumer and industrial products to satisfy the ravenous maw of Americas peacetime economy.
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