Willow Run bomber plant. 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. The option to Walbridge has since lapsed and the property remains available for purchase and redevelopment. >> the willow run plant is in the process now of being demolished. 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. Perhaps the most impressive breakthrough at Willow Run was Ford's technique for assembling the B-24's center wing section. It was constructed in 1941 by the Ford Motor Company for the mass production of the B-24 Liberator military aircraft. The chosen site was farmland owned by Henry Ford on the eastern edge of Michigan's Washtenaw County, near a creek called Willow Run. Meanwhile, Ford was savaged in the Detroit press because it took too long. Out of sheer necessity, Willow Runs 42,500-member 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 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. 1, Specialty Press. Linen (Material). But, as 1943 arrived, problems got solved and Willow Run turned a corner. 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. 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. Cafeterias provided meals to administrative workers in the plant's offices. 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. Ford had no say in the matter; production chaos ensued. Production for the B-24H at Willow Run was 1,780. Mr. Ford's steadfast leadership helped the company to make good on its promise. The Willow Run Expressway also connected with the Detroit Industrial Expressway, built at the same time. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. [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. Watch Ford's Willow Run plant churn out a B-24 every 55 minutes That was the schedule six days a week. . [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]. The B-17 had a six-year history of design, development, testing and limited production. While . You can select the language displayed on our website. A Bomber An Hour - Strategos, Inc Global Headquarters | LITE-ON Technology Corporation The first two extensions were to October 1, 2013, and then to November 1, 2013. Willow Run ran two nine hour shifts. This young employee at the giant Willow Run plant uses her tiny flashlight to discover any internal defects in the tubing. 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. Sixty-seven feet long, the B-24 had 450,000 parts and 360,000 rivets in 550 sizes, and it weighed 18 tons. 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 remaining four hours were used to restock parts and change tooling. In some places, the bulbs had been simply painted over and left in their sockets as GM quickly re-tooled assembly lines. 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. Between them, there was a shelter for more than 15,000 people, roughly the number of people living in Ypsilanti at the time. was producing one B-24 per houraccounting UAW Local 898, 8975 Textile Rd, Ypsilanti, MI 48197. wrbpipms@gmail.com. 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. Browse our Buyers Guide to find suppliers of all types of assembly technology, machines and systems, service providers and trade organizations. GMAD required 16 years to completely absorb Fisher Body's operations, and Fisher would manufacture bodies at Willow Run Assembly until the 1970s; vehicles would roll off the line there until 1992. 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.
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