Managing the utilities and slowly shutting them off has been Lewis' biggest challenge, as the building is hard-pressed to give up its secrets. [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. 550 sizes, and it weighed 18 tons. [46] The campaign attracted national, and even international, attention from media outlets that include many major news dailies in the US as well as National Public Radio, The History Channel magazine, National Geographic TV, The Guardian and the Daily Mail, the latter two of the UK. [3][4] Even then it would take nearly a year before finished Liberators left the factory. We . The Willow Run plant was formally dedicated on October 22, 1941, in a ceremony attended by Major Jimmy Doolittle of the U.S. Army Air Forces. Browse our Buyers Guide to find suppliers of all types of assembly technology, machines and systems, service providers and trade organizations. [29] They discuss "cultural inadequacy theory", stating that "industrial culture provides no criterion by which either a manufacturer or a government official can determine in advance when a manufacturer should divert his own capital to housing and other community services and when he shall rely on the capital of others for such facilities and services". 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. President Roosevelt stunned millions of listeners when he announced during a May 26, 1940, fireside chat that government must harness the efficient machinery of Americas manufacturers to produce 50,000 combat aircraft over the next 12 months to confront the approaching storm of global war. 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. Early example of Lean. Their shopping list included 12,000 of these aerial battleships to attack Germanys heartland, hammering military installations, bridges, factories, rail yards, fuel storage tanks and communications centers. With the pressures of wartime production schedules -- and the sense that victory itself depended on their efforts -- Willow Run's employees needed occasional relief from their burdens. Over the years, GM expanded the bomber plant by roughly half, into a nearly 5,000,000 square feet (460,000m2) GM Powertrain factory and engineering center. Of the 1,000 apartments in West Court, some had no bedrooms and were called "zero bedroom" apartments, and the rest had one bedroom. Ford created a permanent jig into which wings could be moved in and out by overhead crane. Click the drop-down menu below and make your selection. Workers at the Willow Run Bomber Plant take lunch on the fuselage, February 8, 1943. 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. [50], Meanwhile, the remaining portion of the Willow Run property, which includes over 95% of the historic original bomber plant building, was optioned to Walbridge, Inc., for redevelopment as a connected car research and test facility. Between them, there was a shelter for more than 15,000 people, roughly the number of people living in Ypsilanti at the time. Fifty variants of the aircraft were dispatched to allies throughout the world from these sites. Production steadily increased, reaching the magical plane-per-hour pinnacle in mid-1944 while accounting for half of all B-24s assembled that year. The automaker had . Skeptics scoffed at the idea that Ford Motor Co. could mass-produce Search our website to find what youre looking for. Willow Run's problems came under a microscope in April 1942 and again in February 1943, when Senator Harry S. Truman visited the plant. The airfield passed into civilian hands after the war and is now controlled by Wayne County Airport Authority. Highway improvements came in September 1942 when the Willow Run Expressway opened between the plant and Detroit. It still has the original pews and other furnishings; the only other set in active use belongs to the Greenfield Village chapel.[13]. 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. With so many young men drafted into the armed forces, Willow Run's workforce was unusually diverse for its time: African Americans, whites, older people, younger men unable to serve in the military, and -- most notably -- women. The skilled women who accomplished this work -- at Willow Run and elsewhere -- inspired the symbolic "Rosie the Riveter" character. In response, the federal government built Willow Run Lodge, an on-site dormitory complex that could accommodate 3,000 single women and men; and Willow Run Village, with 2,500 family housing units. Ford Motor Company president Edsel Ford passed away on May 26, 1943. Deemed unfit for combat, they were assigned to training bases, reconnaissance patrols and transport duties. Employees Assembling Bomber at Willow Run Plant, March 1943. Up to 8,000 students per week completed training and reported for work. Kaiser-Frazer moved into Willow Run and built civilian-style Jeeps, Henry J sedans, and C-119 cargo planes until going under in 1953. The war's focus was shifting from Europe to Japan, where more-advanced B-29 bombers were needed. Media coverage hyped by Ford and military publicists wove extravagant tales of a mammoth industrial citadel where 100,000 dedicated workers would produce hundreds of Liberators each week to roar across the oceans and obliterate enemy sources and seats of power. But just when that milestone seemed possible, the government drastically cut its order for B-24s. 8,685 B-24's were built in Willow Run bomber plant (Story of Willow Run, p.70). Construction on the Willow Run Bomber Plant began that spring and it soon became the largest factory under one roof in the world. [3][4], Also, Henry Ford was cantankerous and rigid in his ways. Sixty-seven feet long, the B-24 had 450,000 parts and 360,000 rivets in 550 sizes, and it weighed 18 tons. 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. The Air Force dictated more performance and safety upgrades for B-24s than any other American warplane. 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. "A Historical Perspective.". That hulking plant was idled in the early 1990s, putting about 4,000 people out of work. From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Willow Run Lodge[19] was a series of dormitories for single people and was built on the land north of Michigan Avenue and south of Geddes Road. It also required the installation of two turntables to turn airplane fuselages 90 degrees near the end of the assembly line. ", 1960 Chevrolet Corvair Sales Brochure, "The Prestige Car in Its Class". The first of these apartments were ready for occupancy in August 1943. The Willow Run airport was to produce the B-24 bomber to support the Allied war effort. Sorensen and his team methodically broke the complex bomber plane into 11 major assemblies, and then further divided these into 69 sub-assemblies. Construction on the Bomber Plant began in March, 1941. from 1959 to 1969. The company resumed automobile production within a week. Summary. The average daily pumpage in million gallons was about 1.68 in 1942, 1.70 in 1943, and 1.66 in 1944. Consolidated maintained control over design changes and so did the Army Air Corps (retitled U.S. Army Air Force in June 1941). The housing shortage Sorensen complained about arose from his choice of a sparsely populated rural setting 30 miles west of Detroits labor poolan island in Michigan mud, as one writer viewed it. In 1968, General Motors began reorganizing its body and assembly operations into the GM Assembly Division (GMAD). [7] Indeed, the majority of the plant was demolished in late 2013 and early 2014. Sixty-seven feet long, the B-24 had 450,000 parts and 360,000 rivets in The option to Walbridge has since lapsed and the property remains available for purchase and redevelopment. [1] Construction of the Willow Run Bomber Plant began in 1940 [2] and was completed in 1942. There were seven known modification centers: the Birmingham Air Depot in Alabama; Consolidated's Fort Worth plant, the Oklahoma City Air Materiel Center at Tinker Field, the Tucson Modification Center at Tucson International Airport;[39] the Northwest Airlines Depot in Minneapolis; the, Martin-Omaha manufacturing plant, and the Hawaiian Air Depot at Hickam Field. [3][41], The B-24M was the last large-scale production variant of the Liberator. The Yankee Air Museum acquired a portion of the plant, for preservation and exhibit purposes, in 2013. Sorensen protested that Willow Run could not function under these strictures. * Carr, Lowell J., and Stermer, James Edison. The government's constant design changes to the B-24 were particularly troubling. Baseball games at the on-site recreation field took away some of the strain during off-duty hours. Use this Artifact Card to share this great find with others. Ford Motor Company. The 60-year-old production czar viewed mass production of B-24s as the crowning achievement of his career. Easements were acquired from landowners across the county line in Ypsilanti Township where the Liberator plant (and eventually the airport terminal) would be built. Working with architect Albert Kahn, Ford officials envisioned a massive factory with bombers built on a moving line, just like Ford's automobiles. In some places, water cascades from the rafters of the buildingsending a shower on to the oily floor below. Buses were among the only practical solutions. Frank B. Woodford, 'Willow Run Poses Problems,' New York Times, 19 April 1942, E10; Glenn H. Cummings, 'Biggest War Plant,' Wall Street Journal, 26 May 1942, 1; 'Ford Stand Stirs War Housing Issue,' New York Times, 28 June 1942, 25; Agnes E. Meyer, 'Detroit's Willow Run Area Is A Housing Nightmare ,' By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. In 1972, the University spun off WRL into the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan, which eventually left Willow Run for offices in Ann Arbor. The copper wiring and electrical fixturesthe veins and arteries of the plantare the first to be stripped away. Willow Run ran two nine hour shifts. Truman headed a presidential committee charged with eliminating wartime production waste, and Willow Run's struggles worried him. Despite how smoothly the plant ran, putting out a bomber an hour still wasn't an easy feat. Among them were farmhands, secretaries, housewives, schoolteachers and grocery clerks. Ultimately, more than seven million square feet of floor space were completed for B-24 production at Willow Run. 1250 B-24L aircraft were built at Willow Run. Thursday May 4th, 2023. Dwarfs, whose physical stature had limited prewar employment opportunities, toiled inside wings, fuel cells and other confined spaces. The resulting housing complexes were built in several different groups. Before the first employee was hired, the factory stood as a national symbol of Americas fearsome production prowess. Warren Avis, a decorated B-24 pilot in the 376th Bombardment Group, opened the nations first airport rental car service in the terminal and grew it into Avis Rent A Car Systems. The bombings curbed Germany's manufacturing capabilities and wore down its citizens' morale. Plant construction started in March 1941. Public bus lines offered 35 daily trips from Detroit, while private carriers offered 130. No two were alike.. "It was a like a town of its own," said Rancour, 88 . For Our Members-. [3][41], The B-24H was the first variant produced by Ford at Willow Run in large numbers that went into combat. Truman was unimpressed -- he didn't want excuses, he wanted finished bombers. It was thought to be the largest factory under one roof anywhere in the world. >> the willow run plant is in the process now of being demolished. Not given to understatement, he proclaimed that the one-level superstructure would be the most enormous room in the history of man.. All true, but he didnt mention the hard steel dies he authorized, the same types used to slam auto parts into shape, damaged and defaced the softer aluminum, a metal comprising 85 percent of B-24 content. heavy aircraft. Because of the many structural changes required to accommodate the nose turret, the first B-24Hs were delivered slightly behind schedule, with the first machines rolling off the production lines at Ford in late June 1943. The bomber plant adjacent to the airport produced the famed World War II bombers in a plant built by Henry Ford. Willow Run Airport became a Midwest destination for passenger airlines until the late 1950s. Few new hires had ever been in a factory, so Ford built the Aircraft Apprentice School on the grounds to familiarize these industrial novices with tools and techniques of high-precision aeronautical manufacturing. Today "Rosie" remains a feminist icon and a powerful reminder of women's contributions to the American economy. Bill. Riveting was an essential craft at Willow Run. The plant initially built components. There was no sequence or orderly flow of materials, no sense of forward motion, no reliance on machined parts, he said. Paper (Fiber product) In addition to making automatic transmissions, Willow Run Transmission also produced the M16A1 rifle and the M39A1 20mm autocannon for the US military during the Vietnam War. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Twelve thousand women stepped in to fill the void, each paid the same 85 cents an hour as their male counterparts for nine-hour morning or afternoon shifts. 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). Although Ford had an option to purchase the plant once it was no longer needed for war production, the company declined to exercise it, and ended its association with Willow Run. No B-24s were mass-assembled until the final weeks of 1942, more than a year after the plant opened, when 56 came off the line. Access the "best of" at The Henry Ford and other great visit planning resources. At its peak, Willow Run employed more than 42,000 people. [21][22], In February 1943, the first dormitory (Willow Run Lodge) opened, consisted of fifteen buildings containing 1,900 rooms, some single- and others double-occupancy, with room for 3,000 people. The remaining four hours were used to restock parts and change tooling. By the mid-1920s, a local family operating as Quirk Farms had bought the land in Van Buren Township that became the airport. Every fluorescent light bulb in the plant must be taken out before the building can be torn down. The Willow Run Plant had many initial startup problems, due primarily to the fact that Ford employees were used to automobile mass production and found it difficult to adapt these techniques to aircraft . On October 31, 1945 Ford published a notice that cut its workforce from 1,400 employees down to 100 employees who would finish cataloging remaining parts and finish the records. In addition, Henry Ford refused on principle to hire women. 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 plant closed June 28, ending the Liberators brief but epic run, along with Fords presence in the aircraft industry. Sorensen could not guarantee that precision parts built by Ford would fit in airplanes built by Consolidated under those conditions. Modifications resulted from lessons learned in fighting fronts and from the need to modify the plane for its multiple roles. When Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, only 7,400 employees remained on the Willow Run payroll. The plant produced both Kaiser and Frazer models, including the compact Henry J, which with minor differences was also sold through Sears-Roebuck as the Allstate. Visit our updated. Automobiles of the era had 15,000 parts and weighed around 3,000 pounds. Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing. 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 bomber plant produced its first B-24J in April 1944; 1587 were built at Willow Run. A ghostly, decaying reminder of the industrial and military history echoing within its cavernous expanse, Willow Run was demolished in 2014. Willow Run Airport was built as part of the bomber plant. Ford built 37 planes in January, 70 in February, 96 in March, and 146 in April. [36][37], While the planes were being serviced and made ready for overseas movement, personnel for these planes were also being processed. After Ford declined to purchase the plant, it was sold to the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation, a partnership of construction and shipbuilding magnate Henry J. Kaiser and Graham-Paige executive Joseph W. Frazer. A documentary about the Ypsilanti Willow Run airport's legendary B-24 bomber plant will air Sunday on PBS . The automaker proudly promoted its B-24 efforts in magazine advertisements. This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. 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! The U.S. government contributed $200 million to the project.Originally 975 acres of farmland owned by Henry Ford, the site was developed by the Ford Motor Company into Photographic print. No.2, Ziyou St., Tucheng Dist., New Taipei City 236, Taiwan +886-2-2268-3466 Not only did Ford build 490 complete planes, but it also supplied components of B-24Es as kits that could be trucked for final assembly at the factories of Consolidated in Fort Worth and Douglas in Tulsa, 144 and 167 kits. The Willow Run area wasn't prepared to house many of the 42,000 workers who arrived when Ford Motor Company established its bomber plant there during World War II. This young employee at the giant Willow Run plant uses her tiny flashlight to discover any internal defects in the tubing. The massive plant turned out 8,645 Liberators vs. 9,808 manufactured by four factories of Consolidated, Douglas Aircraft, and North American Aviation. Click the drop-down menu below and make your selection. Dies and machine tools were tossed out and redesigned, wasting precious time and millions of dollars. Ford now planned to build 650 planes each month -- one every 45 minutes. But when we send the 24's out, most of them don't. Thirty-eight tons of structural steel, five million bricks, and six months later, the $65-million colossus began churning out parts while equipment was still being installed and roof and walls remained unfinished. According to legend, this arrangement allowed the company to pay taxes on the entire plant (and its equipment) to Washtenaw County, and avoid the higher taxes of Wayne County where the airfield is located; overhead views suggest that avoiding encroachment on the airfield's taxiways was also a motivation.[18]. Overstocked with B-24s, the Air Force already had canceled contracts with Douglas Aircraft and North American Aviation and would terminate Consolidated Fort Worth by years end. The War Department pitched in with funds for the Detroit Industrial Expressway, linking the city to the plant. He was violently anti-union and there were serious labor difficulties, including a massive strike. When Ford declined to purchase the facility after the war, Kaiser-Frazer Corporation gained ownership, and in 1953 Ford's rival General Motors took ownership and operated the factory as Willow Run Transmission until 2010. You must have JavaScript enabled to enjoy a limited number of articles over the next 30 days. 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. 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. For those unable to endure a long commute, the federal government constructed housing on nearby farmland purchased from Henry Ford. [34] The B-24 holds the distinction of being the most produced heavy bomber in history. 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. In November 2016, RACER Trust sold Willow Run to an entity created by the State of Michigan, which leases the property to the American Center for Mobility (AMC).[9]. The Ford Motor Company's Willow Run Bomber Plant began production in 1942 and continued until June 28, 1945. Years later, that stretch would become a section of I-94. Quirk Farms was purchased by automobile pioneer Henry Ford in 1931. In 1941, Henry Ford had his company build a factory at Willow Run in the Detroit area. Out of sheer necessity, Willow Runs 42,500-member The heavies of choice were the B-17 Flying Fortress from Boeing Airplane Co. and the B-24 Liberator from Consolidated Aircraft. Although officially retired, Henry Ford still had a say in the company's affairs and refused government financing for Willow Run, preferring to have his company build the factory and sell it to the government, which would lease it back to the company for the duration of the war. 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. Willow Run Bomber Plant IPMS - USA. Numbers climbed steadily throughout the year. The first section of an 850-acre airfield adjoining the plant opened three days prior to Pearl Harbor, signaling the Liberators primary war mission: long-range flights over Pacific waters to bomb networks of enemy-held islands stretching from Australia and Guadalcanal to the Japanese mainland some 3,000 miles distant. Reality proved otherwise. [47], Building owner RACER Trust extended the original fundraising deadline (August 1, 2013) a total of three times since the Yankee Air Museum launched its SaveTheBomberPlant.org campaign. Ford built 6,972 of the 18,482 total B-24s and produced kits for 1,893 more to be assembled by the other manufacturers. Mass production of B-24s must rely on continuous assembly flow, or they couldnt be built at all. 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. DETROIT -- The public will get the chance to visit the former Willow Run bomber plant in Ypsilanti Township, Mich., one last time Saturday before the factory is demolished. you can see the two big hangar doors behind me. Visit our updated, This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. 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.
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