Expectations were crushed and the sarcastic appellation Willit Run gained wide circulation. One thousand planes a day: Ford, Grumman, General Motors and the At its peak, Willow Run employed more than 42,000 people. 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. Manufacturing costs were slashed as man-hours per plane plummeted. How Ford's Willow Run Assembly Plant Helped Win World War II They presented the plan to Consolidated President Reuben Fleet and George Mead, procurement director for the Advisory Council for National Defense, who countered with an offer to produce a thousand sets of wings. For webinar sponsorship information, visit www.bnpevents.com/webinars or email webinars@bnpmedia.com. 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. 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. Willow Run bomber plant. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. 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. It was thought to be the largest factory under one roof anywhere in the world. The Willow Run Lodge dormitories accommodated 3,000 single women and men, while Willow Run Village consisted of 2,500 family housing units. Some 12,000 women worked at the Willow Run bomber Willow Run workers built 1,893 kits over the course of the war. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. Truman was unimpressed -- he didn't want excuses, he wanted finished bombers. Up to 8,000 students per week completed training and reported for work. [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. There were 24 lunch rooms located throughout the complex. Out of sheer necessity, Willow Runs 42,500-member workforce became a model of diversity for future generations. Truman headed a presidential committee charged with eliminating wartime production waste, and Willow Run's struggles worried him. Sorensen was shocked. [34] The B-24 holds the distinction of being the most produced heavy bomber in history. [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". 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. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. [11], Later in 1953, after a fire on August 12 destroyed General Motors' Detroit Transmission factory in Livonia, Michigan, the Willow Run complex was first leased and then later sold to GM. 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 metal entry doors were also fashioned with magnets to effectively keep the door shut. Construction on the Willow Run Bomber Plant began that spring and it soon became the largest factory under one roof in the world. Ford's Willow Run Factory - Warfare History Network He went on to oversee operations at the companys River Rouge complex where 100,000 workers could produce 10,000 cars a day, from raw materials to finished products. Managing the utilities and slowly shutting them off has been Lewis' biggest challenge, as the building is hard-pressed to give up its secrets. Consolidated had built each wing with its own temporary jig to hold the structure in place. 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. Numbers climbed steadily throughout the year. 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 . Working with a scale model, they shifted equipment and work stations for maximum efficiency. The average daily pumpage in million gallons was about 1.68 in 1942, 1.70 in 1943, and 1.66 in 1944. This young employee at the giant Willow Run plant uses her tiny flashlight to discover any internal defects in the tubing. 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. Considerable water was furnished to the Willow Run bomber plant from the Ypsilanti public-supply system during the period from August 1941 through March 1943. Easements were acquired from landowners across the county line in Ypsilanti Township where the Liberator plant (and eventually the airport terminal) would be built. The company resumed automobile production within a week. The plant held the distinction of being the world's largest enclosed "room." Cafeterias provided meals to administrative workers in the plant's offices. To their dismay they discovered that engineering drawings for the big bomber were uselessincomplete and filled with discrepancies and unfamiliar signs and symbols. Willow Run Airport became a Midwest destination for passenger airlines until the late 1950s. In addition, Henry Ford refused on principle to hire women. [23] The flat-tops contained four, six, or eight apartments with one, two, or three bedrooms. During this reduction, there was rumor that Ford would repurchase the plant from the government . The first of these apartments were ready for occupancy in August 1943. 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. Willow Run Bomber Plant, By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center. Despite how smoothly the plant ran, putting out a bomber an hour still wasn't an easy feat. 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. [36][37], While the planes were being serviced and made ready for overseas movement, personnel for these planes were also being processed. High school graduates worked the line next to 70-year-olds. Over the course of the war, the hospital handled more than two million medical cases. By mid-1944, the Willow Run assembly plant Women did everything from clerical work in the offices to riveting and welding on the assembly line. Because of the urgent need for shelter, the Federal Public Housing Administration took action and built temporary housing. Explore our Digital Collections and curate your own set of artifacts to share with others. Click the drop-down menu below and make your selection. [41], The B-24L was the first product of the new, downsized Liberator production pool. As he spoke, the country had fewer than 3,000 warplanes in its arsenal, most obsolete. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. The bugs were eventually worked out of the manufacturing processes, and by 1944, Ford was rolling a Liberator off the Willow Run production line every 63 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. . The building is currently being used to house and protect of the Museum's large aircraft . Riveting was an essential craft at Willow Run. Ford now planned to build 650 planes each month -- one every 45 minutes. 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 center includes a proving ground where smart cars react instantly to all manner of potentially dangerous and problematic situations. For those unable to endure a long commute, the federal government constructed housing on nearby farmland purchased from Henry Ford.