willow run bomber plant employees

It's hard to imagine a factory that large churning out a complete heavy bomber every 55 minutes, but these workers accomplished exactly that. Davis, Larry, (1987), B-24 Liberator in Action - Aircraft No. Browse our Buyers Guide to find suppliers of all types of assembly technology, machines and systems, service providers and trade organizations. 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. Starting with 2,600 acres of Henry Ford's bare farmland, ground was broken on the 3.5 million sq.-ft. facility in April of 1941, and the first B-24 Liberator four-engine bomber flew off the giant Willow Run airfield in September of 1942. The Willow Run Lodge dormitories accommodated 3,000 single women and men, while Willow Run Village consisted of 2,500 family housing units. [17], Architect Albert Kahn designed the main structure of the Willow Run bomber plant, which had 3,500,000 square feet (330,000m2) of factory space, and an aircraft assembly line over a mile (1600m) long. 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. [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. More than 18,000 were built. It sat 35 miles west of Detroit, at a site without existing highway or streetcar connections. You can select the language displayed on our website. 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. However, he finally relented and did employ "Rosie the Riveters" on his assembly lines, probably more because so many of his potential male workers had been drafted into the military than due to any sudden change of principle on his part. There were 24 lunch rooms located throughout the complex. While there were many injuries, it is notable that Willow Run did not record a single fatality while the factory was in service. Willow Run - B24 Liberator - Military History of the Upper Great Lakes GM also produced vehicles next door at its Willow Run Assembly plant beginning a few years later, in 1959. 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]. In addition, Henry Ford refused on principle to hire women. The twin-finned, high-winged B-24 with its dual bomb bays and tricycle landing gear debuted in 1939 as a repurposed land model of Consolidateds bulky flying boats. [3], Upon the introduction of the B-24J, all three of the Liberator manufacturing plants converted to the production of this version. You cant expect a blacksmith to make a watch overnight, A documentary about the Ypsilanti Willow Run airport's legendary B-24 bomber plant will air Sunday on PBS . Dwarfs, whose physical stature had limited prewar employment opportunities, toiled inside wings, fuel cells and other confined spaces. Willow Run | Detroit Historical Society The errant flush caused Lewis grief as he tried to find the source of the sound. Ford Motor Company president Edsel Ford passed away on May 26, 1943. Dies and machine tools were tossed out and redesigned, wasting precious time and millions of dollars. Between June and December 1943, construction was completed on temporary "flat-top" buildings providing homes for 2,500 families. Manufacturing costs were slashed as man-hours per plane plummeted. 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. Sorensen protested that Willow Run could not function under these strictures. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Sadly, one of the people most responsible for Willow Run's success did not live to see it. 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. Perhaps the most impressive breakthrough at Willow Run was Ford's technique for assembling the B-24's center wing section. Women and men were paid the same rate for the same work. Photographic print. Please click here to continue without javascript.. Increase Assembly Productivity With Cobot Automation, Manufacturing Cost Policy Deployment (MCPD) Profitability Scenarios: Systematic and Systemic Improvement of Manufacturing Costs, How Lean Helped GEs Turbine Factory Find Its Mojo, 2018 Assembly Plant of the Year: Ford Shifts Flexible Assembly Into High Gear. RACER Trust has been supportive of the campaign, even reconfiguring engineering and demolition plans to save cost for the museum. 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 government's constant design changes to the B-24 were particularly troubling. Video: Inside the Ford Willow Run Bomber Plant - Mac's Motor City Garage 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. It was thought to be the largest factory under one roof anywhere in the world. Labor shortages made women essential to war industries, and the government actively recruited them to join the workforce. for half of all B-24s assembled that year. [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. President Franklin D. Roosevelt referred to American industrys war production efforts as the Arsenal of Democracy. Willow Run perfectly symbolized Roosevelts memorable phrase. Sorensen could not guarantee that precision parts built by Ford would fit in airplanes built by Consolidated under those conditions. 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. Pilots, co-pilots, navigators and crew chiefs were assigned as a crew for each aircraft, sleeping on 1,300 cots as they waited for the B-24s to roll off the assembly line. As the problems continued into 1943, critics took to calling the plant "Will it Run.". Automatic flushing toilets in numerous bathrooms throughout the building didn't stop. Cafeterias provided meals to administrative workers in the plant's offices. heavy aircraft. 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. Ultimately, more than seven million square feet of floor space were completed for B-24 production at Willow Run. Every available room within miles was rented, including those with eight-hour shifts called hot beds. Watch on. generations. [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. 550 sizes, and it weighed 18 tons. When Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, only 7,400 employees remained on the Willow Run payroll. The plant began production in summer 1941; the dedication plaque is dated June 16. [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. 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. Instead, upstart automaker Kaiser-Frazer Corporation moved into the factory. Workers on the factory floor could purchase meals from lunch wagons that traveled the facility. Feeding the thousands of workers at Willow Run was no small task. Overhead cranes would hoist completed sections onto the final assembly line for joining into a finished aircraft, the same way cars were put together, but on a grand scale in a massive new plant. 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. Willow Run bomber plant. [8] In 2014, the Yankee Air Museum moved into the bomber factory. 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. Modifications resulted from lessons learned in fighting fronts and from the need to modify the plane for its multiple roles. approximately 4 out of every 10 employees were women. male counterparts. [3][4], Also, Henry Ford was cantankerous and rigid in his ways. That was the schedule six days a week. Managing the utilities and slowly shutting them off has been Lewis' biggest challenge, as the building is hard-pressed to give up its secrets. 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 . The residents of the Willow Run Camp planted, tended, and harvested field crops and collected maple syrup, selling their products at the farm market on the property. The metal entry doors were also fashioned with magnets to effectively keep the door shut. 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. Employees Assembling Bomber at Willow Run Plant, March 1943. The team developed the B-24's build sequence from these divisions. Willow Run - Wikipedia The Boeing B-29 Superfortress was taking over the long-range bombing role in the Pacific Theater and no new B-24 units were programmed for deployment in the other combat theaters of Europe, the Mediterranean or in the CBI. 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. Employee training was a constant process at Willow Run. Although Willow Run is synonymous with the Liberator bomber, B-24s were not the only planes manufactured at Willow Run. 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. The largest of these hangars could house 20 B-24s at once, and included a control tower, a cafe, and a hotel. The story of Willow run and the production miracle that produced as many as 25 B-24 bombers every day. The plant initially built components. The iconic Rosie the Riveter may seem to be simply a fiction from the past but she has a name - and an important history. Ground-water supplies of the Ypsilanti area, Michigan ft. building, which later became the GM Powertrain facility. Between them, there was a shelter for more than 15,000 people, roughly the number of people living in Ypsilanti at the time. At last Willow Run hit its stride in 1944. Gift of Ford Motor Company. Future of historic Willow Run plant uncertain - mlive.com Blacks and other minorities were welcomed and so were immigrants. The B-24 Bomber, officially known as the B-24 Liberator, was designed by Consolidated Aircraft Co., San Diego, California. [7] The 175,000-square-foot (16,300m2) portion of the original bomber plant that Yankee seeks to preserve is less than 5% of the massive facility, comprises the end of the former B-24 assembly line at the far eastern edge of the property, and contains the two iconic bay doors from which the finished Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers exited the plant during World War II. Company Description: Pegatron offers a wide range of electronics products in computing, communications and consumer electronics segment, including notebook PCs, desktop PCs, motherboards, cable modems, smartphones, set-top boxes, and automotive electronics, among others. Ford officials looked for every efficiency they could find in B-24 production. 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. You cant expect a blacksmith to make a watch overnight, sniffed Dutch Kindelberger, president of North American Aviation. The remaining four hours were used to restock parts and change tooling. [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]. [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. It still has the original pews and other furnishings; the only other set in active use belongs to the Greenfield Village chapel.[13]. 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. 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. Five main contractors hurried the project along, and parts of the plant began production in September 1941. All Rights Reserved BNP Media. 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. Riveting was an essential craft at Willow Run. 1250 B-24L aircraft were built at Willow Run. A never-ending stream of water gurgles through the pipes to parts unknown like an underground stream. Along with the B-17, the B-24 formed the backbone of the Allies' air war over Europe. 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 average daily pumpage in million gallons was about 1.68 in 1942, 1.70 in 1943, and 1.66 in 1944. More than 3,200 feet long and 1,279 feet across at its widest point, the plants 80-acre interior exceeded the Empire State Buildings floor space by 20 percent. It was an attempt to reverse the trend toward ever-increasing weight of the Liberator as more and more armament, equipment, and armor had been added, with no corresponding increase in engine power. [1] Construction of the Willow Run Bomber Plant began in 1940[2] and was completed in 1942. ", Willow Run Bomber Plant Manual, 1943-1944, 1947 Kaiser-Frazer Advertisement, "One Every Minute is Not Enough! The influx of workers for the massive war . By the end of the war, Ford had pushed 8,865 B-24 heavy bombers out the Willow Run doors for the Army . Women did everything from clerical work in the offices to riveting and welding on the assembly line. 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. It appears that Camp Willow Run shut down after the 1941 season with the coming of the bomber plant, many of the boys went to work at the Willow Run village industry plant, and others moved on to the apprentice and trade school. 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. Reality proved otherwise. No two were alike.. 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. It's all narrated with a fantastic mid-Atlantic accent that perfectly fits the . restore a piece of the building, about 175,000 square feet.