Their work guided custom designs of 1,600 machine tools and 11,000 fixtures, some 60 feet tall, that would stamp, mill, drill, broach and grind parts to thousandths-of-an-inch tolerances, each with repeatable precision. At its peak, Willow Run employed more than 42,000 people. According to the Benson Ford Research Center, the camp offered: "farm training, self-reliance, management, and salesmanshipthe boys governed themselves, appointing a foreman and field foreman from their own ranks. It sat 35 miles west of Detroit, at a site without existing highway or streetcar connections. No two were alike.. They were producing a custom-made plane put together as a tailor would cut and fit a suit of clothes. Winston Churchill called his specially outfitted B-24 the Commando. workforce became a model of diversity for future Riveting was an essential craft at Willow Run. A thousand-member tool design group worked around the clock seven days a week for almost a year to create three-dimensional schematics of the planes 30,000 separate components, generating five million square feet of blueprints in the process. [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. [40], The B-24E was the first variant of the B-24 that underwent primary manufacture by Ford at Willow Run. Workers at Willow Run built a staggering 8,685 B-24 bombers -- 6,792 complete planes and 1,893 knock-down kits -- by the time the last one was finished on June 28, 1945. 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. Sixty-seven feet long, the B-24 had 450,000 parts and 360,000 rivets in 550 sizes, and it weighed 18 tons. In the process, the boys were to learn self-discipline and the values of hard work, and benefit from the fresh air of the country.[11]. Willow Run is an Albert Kahn-designed World War II bomber plant near Ypsilanti, Michigan. Summary. Meanwhile, Ford was savaged in the Detroit press because it took too long. 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]. Between them, there was a shelter for more than 15,000 people, roughly the number of people living in Ypsilanti at the time. 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. In some places, the bulbs had been simply painted over and left in their sockets as GM quickly re-tooled assembly lines. Reality proved otherwise. Each completed B-24 contained more than 300,000 rivets in more than 500 sizes. Willow Run Airport became a Midwest destination for passenger airlines until the late 1950s. Sorensen stayed up all night formulating a B-24 assembly process on the backs of Coronado Hotel placemats. Since 1992, it has been home to the Yankee Air Museum. "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? When Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, only 7,400 employees remained on the Willow Run payroll. 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. That was the schedule six days a week. The War Department pitched in with funds for the Detroit Industrial Expressway, linking the city to the plant. 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 Sorensen and his team methodically broke the complex bomber plane into 11 major assemblies, and then further divided these into 69 sub-assemblies. The Fisher Body division also operated at Willow Run Assembly until its operations were assumed by the GM Assembly Division in the 1970s. You cant expect a blacksmith to make a watch overnight, sniffed Dutch Kindelberger, president of North American Aviation. 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. The factory was nearly an hour's drive from Detroit, and the imposition of wartime gasoline and tire rationing had made the daily commute difficult. While this was unfolding, Sorensen retained renowned industrial architect Albert Kahn to design a factory that would adapt Fords automotive assembly techniques to mass production of a giant aircraft. The Willow Run complex has given its name to a community on the east side of Ypsilanti, defined roughly by the boundaries of the Willow Run Community School District. 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 production. 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. Enjoy the latest news from The Henry Ford, special offers, and more. Although Willow Run is synonymous with the Liberator bomber, B-24s were not the only planes manufactured at Willow Run. Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing. Ford had no say in the matter; production chaos ensued. 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. 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. During a January 1941 inspection tour of the Consolidated San Diego plant with Edsel Ford, gentlemanly 45-year-old company president and son of cantankerous autocrat Henry Ford, Sorensen belittled the operations deliberate, labor-intensive procedures. 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. Like many successful technology companies, LITEON outgrew the garage to become a leader of its chosen industry through years of hard work. As the problems continued into 1943, critics took to calling the plant "Will it Run.". The campaign to save a portion of Willow Run for the Yankee Air Museum was called SaveTheBomberPlant.org, and is centered on a fundraising website by the same name. ft. building, which later became the GM Powertrain facility. [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]. Now signifying "the arsenal of democracy", at the outset Ford's Willow Run Bomber Plant was nearly a failure. "Decommissioning the plant is not an easy task. 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. [1] Construction of the Willow Run Bomber Plant began in 1940 [2] and was completed in 1942. For government officials, Ford offered significant advantages. 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. The standard workweek for all hourly employees was 54 hours, with time-and-a-half pay for each hour over 40. By the end of the war, Ford had pushed 8,865 B-24 heavy bombers out the Willow Run doors for the Army . Gift of Ford Motor Company. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. General Motors took over and produced transmissions until 2010, when the company declared bankruptcy and moved out. Unlike menacing B-24 Liberators that took off from the same spot, these silent vehicles are on a mission to save lives and prevent destruction. The average daily pumpage in million gallons was about 1.68 in 1942, 1.70 in 1943, and 1.66 in 1944. The first Ford-built Liberator rolled off the Willow Run line in September 1942; the first series of Willow Run Liberators was the B-24E. It seems like a production miracle that the people working at Willow Run bomber plant were able to produce the B-24 Liberator at such tremendous speed. Planes were assembled outdoors, exposed to a hot sun that distorted parts out of shape. [3][41], The B-24M was the last large-scale production variant of the Liberator. [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. This made the farmers dislike the plant and its employees because the farmers viewed Willow Run and its employees as attempting to change the established community. 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 . In early 1941 the Federal government established the Liberator Production Pool Program to meet the projected demand for the B-24, and the Ford company, joined the program shortly thereafter. Perhaps, when peace returned, customers would remember Ford's achievement when it came time to shop for a new car. [3][4], By autumn 1943, the top leadership role at Willow Run had passed from Charles Sorensen to Mead L. Paperwork was handled, necessary specific B-24 life support equipment was issued and some technical training for supporting the aircraft accomplished. The chosen site was farmland owned by Henry Ford on the eastern edge of Michigan's Washtenaw County, near a creek called Willow Run. [44], By the time General Motors entered bankruptcy in 2009, manufacturing and assembly operations at Willow Run had dwindled to almost nothing; the GM Powertrain plant closed in December 2010 and the complex passed into the control of the RACER Trust, which is charged with cleaning up, positioning for redevelopment and ultimately, selling properties of the former General Motors.[7]. Click the drop-down menu below and make your selection. Well build the whole plane or nothing, Sorensen barked, accompanied by the audacious claim that Ford would assemble new B-24s every hour. New housing, better roads and professional training alleviated Willow Runs employee retention dilemma, but didnt solve it. The team developed the B-24's build sequence from these divisions. A typical month saw as many workers quit as were hired, and 8,200 more were drafted into military service. It was constructed in 1941 by the Ford Motor Company for the mass production of the B-24 Liberator military aircraft. At peak production, the plant had a bomber come off the assembly line every 55 minutes, and the continued boost of one bomber produced a day was one bomber finished a day. Years later, that stretch would become a section of I-94. At peak production, B-24s sheathed in 4,200 square feet of bonded aluminum rolled out the door every hour. 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. It was thought to be the largest factory under one roof anywhere in the world. Working with a scale model, they shifted equipment and work stations for maximum efficiency. Women represented approximately one third of the workers at Ford Motor Company's Willow Run plant during World War II. [49] The majority of the $8 million goal reflects separation costs to make the preserved portion of the plant viable as a standalone structure. The bomber plant produced its first B-24J in April 1944; 1587 were built at Willow Run. When . the yankee air museum into it and show people what the history . The two sides reached an accommodation during the first quarter of 1943. During this time he was a pioneer of American production. The President and First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, visited Willow Run on September 18, 1942, where they joined Henry Ford, Edsel Ford and Charles Sorensen on a tour of the complex. To care for the plant's workforce, Willow Run maintained an on-site hospital with eight doctors, 40 nurses, and a dentist. those hangar doors represent the end of the plant, the end of the assembly line where 8700 b-24s rolled out. [41], The B-24L was the first product of the new, downsized Liberator production pool. Ford struggled to get Willow Run running at full potential. "[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. They would be built elsewhere. Early example of Lean. Hundreds bought their first pair of shoes upon arrival. [21], By the end of 1943 there were six different temporary projects in the vicinity of Willow Run: two dormitory projects, two trailer projects (one renting trailers, and another for privately owned trailers; each with community laundry, shower, and toilet facilities), and two projects with apartments for couples or families, West Court and the Village. from 1959 to 1969. Browse our Buyers Guide to find suppliers of all types of assembly technology, machines and systems, service providers and trade organizations. 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. Another large dormitory project, containing 1,960 rooms and known as West Lodge, was also ready for tenants at that time. In April 2013, the Detroit Free Press confirmed that the facility's current owner, RACER Trust, was negotiating with the Yankee Air Museum to preserve a small portion of the original bomber plant as a new home for the museum. Sorensen, Edsel Ford and Henry Ford well understood the difficulties in precision mass production. approximately 4 out of every 10 employees were women. Willow Run's problems came under a microscope in April 1942 and again in February 1943, when Senator Harry S. Truman visited the plant. 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. Sorensen reviewed his concept at breakfast with Edsel, who responded enthusiastically to its vision and boldness and initialed it on the spot, as did Henry II and Benson, his two sons accompanying him on the trip. GM used the building to store files until an undetermined time, where it was sold to the Cherry Hill Baptist Church. He may have been right. Despite how smoothly the plant ran, putting out a bomber an hour still wasn't an easy feat. 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. 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. This covered 90 parcels of land[20] totaling 2,641 acres (1,069ha). we intend to save that. [51], Michigan Live reporter Amy Biolchini toured the empty Willow Run facility in early 2013, observing:[52]. Ford created a permanent jig into which wings could be moved in and out by overhead crane. 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. Steel dies proved more precise, longer lasting, and perfectly safe. Only 56 airplanes were built in all of 1942. [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. [26] The housing complex remained in use until 2016 as public housing when it was demolished and rebuilt with new modern units. The aircraft manufacturer Douglas Aircraft, and the B-24's designer, Consolidated Aircraft, assembled the finished airplane.

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