Willow Run History

Django · **Posted:** Tue Sep 23, 2008 12:09 pm

Here's an interesting article on Willow Run.

http://www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/ ... w_run.html

Django · **Posted:** Tue Sep 23, 2008 12:15 pm

And an article a bit more focused on the workers.

http://info.detnews.com/redesign/histor ... .cfm?id=73

mtpopejoy · **Posted:** Tue Sep 23, 2008 12:59 pm

Hey thanks for the great read.
Willow Run is a gigantic place. Now owned by General Motors for transmission assembly.
The final assembly hangar (hangar 2) is where Yankee Air Museum is housing their temporary quarters. It is pretty cool to see a picture of the old plant and realize you are standing "right there!"
My father worked in that plant for 20 years and says that you can still see signs that it was a bomber plant. The rail system is still in the floor and you can see the square holes in the ceiling where they used to drop the engines down for installation.
Go to the photo gallery at http://yankeeairmuseum.org/
They have a lot of great pictures from the bomber plant and air base.
Regards,
Mark

b29flteng · **Posted:** Thu Sep 25, 2008 6:27 pm

I have a book somewhere in storage that was written about 8 years ago that has a complete history of Willow Run. The author grew up next to it. It covered the building of the factory and the aircraft. Sorry, I can't remember the name of the book or author.

Forgotten Field · **Posted:** Thu Sep 25, 2008 8:14 pm

I found this attached to a hydraulic panel for the tail turret on a Liberator. Actually, it is probably from a PB4Y-1, due to two of the three-tone sea paint scheme colors remaining. It is marked GK 32, which should make it a Ford Liberator. It's a sorry fact that not much more than this and a few other items is left of what they produced at Willow Run.

Django · **Posted:** Thu Dec 11, 2008 4:09 pm

Where did you find that panel?

Check out these photos! They will knock your socks off! 256 photos of the plant, production, the base, the Liberators, promo shots... Wow!!

http://public.fotki.com/Kos/members_pho ... _slideshow

dc8jet · **Posted:** Sun Dec 14, 2008 8:51 pm

Wow! Those were great pics! Thanks for posting the link. Does anyone have any pics of Willow Run when it was Detroit's air terminal in the 1950s? The book about Willow Run is WILLOW RUN Colossus Of American Industry by Warren Benjamin Kidder.

The Inspector · **Posted:** Mon Dec 15, 2008 1:40 am

Forgotten Field,
You mean besides WITCHCRAFT a Ford built airframe-

Steve Nelson · **Posted:** Mon Dec 15, 2008 4:26 am

The Original "Witchcraft" was a Ford-built machine, but I believe the Collings Foundation B-24J is a Consolidated-built aircraft.

There are still a few Ford Libs around. The Barksdale, Ottawa, and Duxford (ex Lackland) examples come to mind.

SN

Django · **Posted:** Tue Dec 16, 2008 5:13 pm

Steve Nelson wrote:

The Original "Witchcraft" was a Ford-built machine, but I believe the Collings Foundation B-24J is a Consolidated-built aircraft.

SN

That's how I understand it as well.

N3Njeff · **Posted:** Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:28 pm

I would love to see Willow run some day. A few years ago I got to go to Rolls Royce school for two weeks in indy. The 2nd week, we got to see where the A3007 engine is assembled. When I got there all I could think about was all the V-1710's that left that building!!!

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