willow run bomber plant employees

Sadly, one of the people most responsible for Willow Run's success did not live to see it. Willow Run Airport has remained active as a cargo and general aviation airfield. 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. Since 1992, it has been home to the Yankee Air Museum. 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. Enjoy the latest news from The Henry Ford, special offers, and more. Numbers climbed steadily throughout the year. Lloyd, Alwyn T. (1993), Liberator: America's Global Bomber, Pictorial Histories Publishing Co, Inc. O'Leary, Michael, (2003), Consolidated B-24 Liberator (Osprey Production Line to Frontline 4), Osprey Publishing, Weber, Austin. 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. Four engines powered the aircraft, and together its two bomb bays could carry up to 8,000 pounds of explosives. Ford created a permanent jig into which wings could be moved in and out by overhead crane. Employees Assembling Bomber at Willow Run Plant, March 1943. But when we send the 24's out, most of them don't. As American involvement in the war seemed more likely, the U.S. government approached Ford Motor Company about making parts and subassemblies for B-24 bombers. Expectations were crushed and the sarcastic appellation Willit Run gained wide circulation. After the war, Ford sold the chapel to Kaiser-Frazer, who in turn sold it to General Motors as part of the purchase of the Willow Run bomber plant. 20900 Oakwood Boulevard, Dearborn, MI 481245029, Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation Overview, Teacher's Choice @ Giant Screen Experience, Henry Austin Clark, Jr. Graduate Internship, Clark Travel-to-Collections Research Fellowship, Diversity and Inclusion Internship Program, Teacher's Choice @ Giant Screen Experience, Educator Professional Development Overview. It sat 35 miles west of Detroit, at a site without existing highway or streetcar connections. . Truman was unimpressed -- he didn't want excuses, he wanted finished bombers. [23] The flat-tops contained four, six, or eight apartments with one, two, or three bedrooms. [15] Ford Motor was to have first option on the plant after war production ended, an option it ultimately chose not to exercise, although a rumor in Drew Pearson's syndicated column had Ford planning a postwar use as a tractor factory,[16] but that never came to pass. In 1968, General Motors began reorganizing its body and assembly operations into the GM Assembly Division (GMAD). Use this Artifact Card to share this great find with others. 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. The standard workweek for all hourly employees was 54 hours, with time-and-a-half pay for each hour over 40. 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. Cast Iron Charlie had two Liberators flown to Dearborn where they were dismantled piece by piece. Labor shortages made women essential to war industries, and the government actively recruited them to join the workforce. It was the company that perfected the moving assembly line in the 1910s and, as a privately owned firm, it could move faster than publicly traded corporations. "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 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. Remote assembly proved problematic, however, and by October 1941 Ford received permission to produce complete Liberators. At last Willow Run hit its stride in 1944. 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 60-year-old production czar viewed mass production of B-24s as the crowning achievement of his career. The option to Walbridge has since lapsed and the property remains available for purchase and redevelopment. [1][35], After their manufacture, the next step in the process was the delivery of the aircraft to the operational squadrons. 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 ,' According to Max Wallace, Air Corps Chief General "Hap" Arnold told Charles Lindbergh, then a consultant at the plant, that "combat squadrons greatly preferred the B-17 bomber to the B-24 because 'when we send the 17's out on a mission, most of them return. FDRs goal exceeded the total of all planes built in the U.S. since the Wright brothers 1903 flight at Kitty Hawk, NC, and he challenged the aviation industry to match that number in succeeding years. The bomber plant adjacent to the airport produced the famed World War II bombers in a plant built by Henry Ford. [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. You cant expect a blacksmith to make a watch overnight, During this time he was a pioneer of American production. The company came back to the government with a counter proposal: it wouldn't just build parts for the B-24, it would build complete airplanes using the automaker's highly refined techniques. Using lumber from hundreds of trees cut down to clear the site, contractors built temporary dormitories for single men and women, trailer parks, and prefabricated flat-top housing for families that, by the end of 1943, could house 15,000 employees. The B-24H differed from earlier B-24s by having a second turret placed in the nose of the aircraft to increase defensive firepower. Paper (Fiber product) 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. Do you support unions, and are they still relevant? [48], By the May 1, 2014, deadline, the Yankee Air Museum had raised over $7 million of its original $8 million fundraising goal, which was enough to enable the building's owners to move forward with signing a Purchase Agreement with Yankee, with the actual purchase expected to be finalized in late summer or fall of 2014. 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. [13], The Willow Run Chapel[14] was the one originally built for Camp Willow Run, and became the place of worship for the Belleville Presbyterian Church in 1979 after a series of handoffs. 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. Meanwhile, Ford was savaged in the Detroit press because it took too long. 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. After Kaiser left, General Motors leased and then purchased Willow Run. Four 1,200-hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp engines assembled by Buick Motor Division shook the earth as the newly minted war machines cast aloft on test flights. Production steadily increased, reaching the magical plane-per-hour pinnacle in mid-1944 while accounting for half of all B-24s assembled that year. Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing. The B-24J incorporated a hydraulically driven tail turret and other defensive armament modifications in the nose of the aircraft. Willow Run Airport was built as part of the bomber plant. Simply moving workers to and from the plant was a major logistical challenge. Click the drop-down menu below and make your selection. "A Historical Perspective.". The company resumed automobile production within a week. As the US Air Force struggled to expand its airlift capacity during the Korean War, Kaiser-Frazer built C-119 Flying Boxcar cargo planes at Willow Run under license from Fairchild Aircraft, producing an estimated 88 C-119s between 1951 and 1953. Eighty years ago this month, workers began clearing land near a small creek in Ypsilanti Township to make way for the largest factory in the world, the Willow Run Bomber Plant. Workers at the Willow Run Bomber Plant take lunch on the fuselage, February 8, 1943. [40], The B-24E was the first variant of the B-24 that underwent primary manufacture by Ford at Willow Run. For government officials, Ford offered significant advantages. Ford Motor would not only build the bombers, it would supply the airfield as well; the farm at Willow Run was an ideal location for the airfield's runways, being under the personal ownership of Henry Ford (thus solving any land acquisition problem) and sited between the main roads and rail lines connecting Detroit with Ann Arbor and points to the west. [10] Ford, a keen exponent of the virtues of country living, used it as farmland for a "social engineering" experiment that brought inner-city boys to the Willow Run Camp to learn about farming, nature, and the rural way of life. 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). Charles Sorensen, seen here earlier in his career, traveled to Consolidated's San Diego plant with Ford president Edsel Ford. [49] The majority of the $8 million goal reflects separation costs to make the preserved portion of the plant viable as a standalone structure. 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. By the end of the war, Ford had pushed 8,865 B-24 heavy bombers out the Willow Run doors for the Army . Winston Churchill called his specially outfitted B-24 the Commando. 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 iconic Rosie the Riveter may seem to be simply a fiction from the past but she has a name - and an important history. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. Before the first employee was hired, the factory stood as a national symbol of Americas fearsome production prowess. RACER Trust has been supportive of the campaign, even reconfiguring engineering and demolition plans to save cost for the museum. Photographic print. She was part of that migration, part of the 40,000 employees at the Ford-run Willow Run B-24 bomber plant and part of the great Arsenal of Democracy that Detroit and the Southeastern Michigan region became, cranking out airplanes, tanks, trucks, and weapons. The plant was the embodiment of America's "Arsenal of Democracy" -- the enormous manufacturing capacity so vital to the Allies' victory. A rough-hewn, hard-charging martinet, Cast Iron Charlie played a principal role in conceiving and designing the worlds first moving assembly line at Fords Highland Park plant bordering Detroit. The Ford Motor Company's Willow Run Bomber Plant began production in 1942 and continued until June 28, 1945. Willow Run stepped up outsourcing of parts production and subassemblies to almost 1,000 Ford factories and independent suppliers while focusing on building B-24s in more predictable designs that minimized shutdowns. The Willow Run bomber plant made aviation, industrial and social historyalong with new B-24s by the hour. ", Demolition of the majority of the Willow Run facility began in December 2013. There was no sequence or orderly flow of materials, no sense of forward motion, no reliance on machined parts, he said. The plant began production in summer 1941; the dedication plaque is dated June 16. Out of sheer necessity, Willow Runs 42,500-member >> the willow run plant is in the process right now of being demolished. Manufacturing costs were slashed as man-hours per plane plummeted. Automobiles of the era had 15,000 parts and weighed around 3,000 pounds. The Yankee Air Museum acquired a portion of the plant, for preservation and exhibit purposes, in 2013. 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. Buses were among the only practical solutions. By mid-1944, the Willow Run assembly plant B-24 Liberators line the airfield at Willow Run Airport in this June 1945 photo. The resulting housing complexes were built in several different groups. Workers on the factory floor could purchase meals from lunch wagons that traveled the facility. 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. A typical month saw as many workers quit as were hired, and 8,200 more were drafted into military service. approximately 4 out of every 10 employees were women. [26] The housing complex remained in use until 2016 as public housing when it was demolished and rebuilt with new modern units. That was the schedule six days a week. [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". Hundreds bought their first pair of shoes upon arrival. Ford had no say in the matter; production chaos ensued. Quirk Farms was purchased by automobile pioneer Henry Ford in 1931. High school graduates worked the line next to 70-year-olds. Visit our updated. Ford built 37 planes in January, 70 in February, 96 in March, and 146 in April. You cant expect a blacksmith to make a watch overnight, sniffed Dutch Kindelberger, president of North American Aviation. 7:00 PM. Mass production of B-24s must rely on continuous assembly flow, or they couldnt be built at all. Women represented approximately one third of the workers at Ford Motor Company's Willow Run plant during World War II. The plant initially built components. 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. In the meantime, visitors to the Yankee Air Museum at the airport can see how the blacksmith made a watch and helped win a war. No two were alike.. the yankee air museum into it and show people what the history . It was thought to be the largest factory under one roof anywhere in the world. Willow Run bomber plant. 8,685 B-24's were built in Willow Run bomber plant (Story of Willow Run, p.70). [3][4] Even then it would take nearly a year before finished Liberators left the factory. He was violently anti-union and there were serious labor difficulties, including a massive strike. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. By mid-1944, the Willow Run assembly plant was producing one B-24 per houraccounting for half of all B-24s assembled that year. They would be built elsewhere. 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. A documentary about the Ypsilanti Willow Run airport's legendary B-24 bomber plant will air Sunday on PBS . In some places, the bulbs had been simply painted over and left in their sockets as GM quickly re-tooled assembly lines. But, as 1943 arrived, problems got solved and Willow Run turned a corner. During this reduction, there was rumor that Ford would repurchase the plant from the government . His sketches embraced the two fundamentals of mass production: standardized, interchangeable parts and continuous, orderly flow punctuated by stops at assembly stations where workers and machines performed repetitive tasks. you can see the two big hangar doors behind me. He succumbed to cancer, but the enormous stress of the B-24 project undoubtedly affected his health as well. . 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. Approximately one-third of the plant's assembly line workers were female. The average daily pumpage in million gallons was about 1.68 in 1942, 1.70 in 1943, and 1.66 in 1944. The company also develops, designs, and manufactures peripherals and components for its products. [7] Indeed, the majority of the plant was demolished in late 2013 and early 2014. A technological marvel for a new age of aerial warfare, the B-24 was now obsolete. Sorensen and his team carefully planned the new facility to the last detail. Crew size was up to ten, and range was up to 3,000 miles. A 175,000-square-foot section, where B-24s were gassed up and towed out the door, was spared for the future home of the National Museum of Aviation and Technology. 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. [3][4] Willow Run's Liberator assembly line ran until May 1945, building almost half of all the Liberators produced. The automaker had . This section was known as Willow Run Village. Perhaps the most impressive breakthrough at Willow Run was Ford's technique for assembling the B-24's center wing section. Feeding the thousands of workers at Willow Run was no small task. 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. The plant at Willow Run was also beset with labor difficulties, high absentee rates, and rapid employee turnover. Thursday May 4th, 2023. UAW Local 898, 8975 Textile Rd, Ypsilanti, MI 48197. wrbpipms@gmail.com. "[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. Consolidated had built each wing with its own temporary jig to hold the structure in place. [1] Construction of the Willow Run Bomber Plant began in 1940[2] and was completed in 1942. While there were many injuries, it is notable that Willow Run did not record a single fatality while the factory was in service. 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. Of the seven chapels, this is the only one currently in use as a regular place of worship. 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. Apart from a new tail turret, the B-24M differed little from the B-24L. 1, Specialty Press. Sorensen was shocked. [3], B-24Es built and fully assembled at Ford were designated B-24E-FO; those assembled at Tulsa and Fort Worth out of parts supplied by Ford were designated B-24E-DT and B-24E-CF respectively. 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 first two extensions were to October 1, 2013, and then to November 1, 2013. For webinar sponsorship information, visit www.bnpevents.com/webinars or email webinars@bnpmedia.com. They were producing a custom-made plane put together as a tailor would cut and fit a suit of clothes. [55] By mid-2014, the majority of the facility had been demolished and cleared. There were 24 lunch rooms located throughout the complex. 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. The government's constant design changes to the B-24 were particularly troubling. The errant flush caused Lewis grief as he tried to find the source of the sound. we intend to restore a piece of the building, about 175,000 square feet. Highway improvements came in September 1942 when the Willow Run Expressway opened between the plant and Detroit. The two sides reached an accommodation during the first quarter of 1943. 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. The plant closed June 28, ending the Liberators brief but epic run, along with Fords presence in the aircraft industry. Gift of Ford Motor Company. It still has the original pews and other furnishings; the only other set in active use belongs to the Greenfield Village chapel.[13]. Another large dormitory project, containing 1,960 rooms and known as West Lodge, was also ready for tenants at that time. Here is his description of the visit and how he conceived the Willow Run bomber plant that eventually manufactured 8,800 of these aircraft. '"[31], A 1943 committee authorized by Congress to examine problems at the plant issued a highly critical report; the Ford Motor Company had created a production line that too closely resembled an automobile assembly line "despite the warning of many experienced aircraftmen."[32]. Today "Rosie" remains a feminist icon and a powerful reminder of women's contributions to the American economy. The story of Willow run and the production miracle that produced as many as 25 B-24 bombers every day. The Willow Run Expressway also connected with the Detroit Industrial Expressway, built at the same time. It was constructed in 1941 by the Ford Motor Company for the mass production of the B-24 Liberator military aircraft. Rosemary was among 200,000 southerners who flocked to southeastern Michigan for factory jobs, including 9,500 employed at Willow Run. heavy aircraft. Truman headed a presidential committee charged with eliminating wartime production waste, and Willow Run's struggles worried him. The main building's "L" shape prevented its crossing into neighboring Wayne County. You can select the language displayed on our website. A never-ending stream of water gurgles through the pipes to parts unknown like an underground stream. Like many successful technology companies, LITEON outgrew the garage to become a leader of its chosen industry through years of hard work. The plant was originally designed to be able to continue to operate if parts of it were ever bombedwhich resulted in dedicated water, compressed air and gas lines to different areas of the building.". GM first built transmissions at the plant, and later automobiles including Chevrolet's Corvair and Nova models. [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]. [48] On October 26, 2013, RACER Trust and the Yankee Air Museum again reached a third, and final, deadline extension agreement that gave Yankee until May 1, 2014, to raise the $8 million estimated as necessary to secure, enclose and preserve a portion of the original Willow Run plant for the Yankee Air Museum. Of the 1,000 apartments in West Court, some had no bedrooms and were called "zero bedroom" apartments, and the rest had one bedroom. Willow Run Airport became a Midwest destination for passenger airlines until the late 1950s. [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. Skeptics scoffed at the idea that Ford Motor Co. could mass-produce No one had ever manufactured airplanes on such a scale before. The building is currently being used to house and protect of the Museum's large aircraft . Planes were assembled outdoors, exposed to a hot sun that distorted parts out of shape. 1250 B-24L aircraft were built at Willow Run. Ford Motor Company. 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. From historic images to vivid descriptions, a record of rich detail is bundled inside a single card. This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. This covered 90 parcels of land[20] totaling 2,641 acres (1,069ha). Search our website to find what youre looking for. Like virtually all of the United States' industrial concerns, Ford Motor Company, by this time under the direction of Henry Ford's only son Edsel, directed its manufacturing output during World War II to Allied war production. Engineering Photographic Department, United States, Michigan, Charter Township of Ypsilanti, Ford Motor Company. GMs Chevrolet Division assembled rear-engine Corvairs in a converted warehouse on the grounds during a 10-year run beginning in 1959. Labor shortages made women essential to war industries, and the government actively recruited them to join the workforce. Ford recruited workers throughout the Midwest and South. Most controversial was Ford's decision to replace soft metal dies -- thought to be gentler on aluminum airplane components -- with hard steel dies. The Yankee Air Museum resides on the airport grounds, occupying as of April 2013 a 47,000-square-foot (4,400m2) hangar and other properties. Yankee was originally granted until August 2013 (deadline was later extended) to raise the funds needed to purchase and separate a portion of the approximately 5,000,000 sq. At peak production, B-24s sheathed in 4,200 square feet of bonded aluminum rolled out the door every hour. No.2, Ziyou St., Tucheng Dist., New Taipei City 236, Taiwan +886-2-2268-3466 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. * Carr, Lowell J., and Stermer, James Edison. Part of the tour led them to a hidden room within the facility: "His [Lewis] adventures in the plantalways accompanied by multiple flashlightshave lead him to amusing discoveries: a secret break room stashed in the middle of the plant. was producing one B-24 per houraccounting

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