 |
| AssemblyMag (registerware) Mike Briski posted How Ford's Willow Run Assembly Plant Helped Win World War IITHE WILLOW RUN BOMBER PLANT MADE AVIATION, INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY—ALONG WITH NEW B-24S BY THE HOUR. |
"The massive plant turned out 8,645 Liberators vs. 9,808 manufactured by four factories of Consolidated, Douglas Aircraft, and North American Aviation. Together they produced more of the slab-sided behemoths than any American warplane ever....Completed planes flew off to field modification centers for fixes, upgrades and customizing. Fifty variants of the aircraft were dispatched to allies throughout the world from these sites." This plant also produced kits of parts that were trucked to the other plants. [AssemblyMag (3 free uses before registeration)]
I recommend reading the AssemblyMag article, but chose a place and time when you can finish reading it because access is limited.
 |
| National Museum of World War II Aviation posted B-24 Liberators are shown on the production line at Ford Motor Co.'s Willow Run plant in Michigan. The B-24 was the most-produced U.S, aircraft of World War II. A total of 18,500 were built, 4,600 by Ford. See our exhibit about the B-24 -- one of more than 100 exhibits and displays at the Museum, at the Colorado Springs Airport. The Saturday Evening Post posted Today [Nov 28] in History: The First B-24 Bomber Is Produced The first B-24 came off the assembly line at Ford’s 80-acre Willow Run plant today in 1942. The Ford Motor Company believed it could mass produce bombers the same way it turned out cars. But the size and complexity of the aircraft proved them wrong. Their automobile had 15,000 parts. A B-24 had nearly half a million parts and over 3,000 rivets in 500 sizes. Setting up the assembly process was a massive task. Getting the labor was another. The plant was far out in the country with little housing. New workers had trouble adapting to the smell and noise, or were overwhelmed by the demands of the job. There were high absentee rates, and employees quit at about the same rate as more were hired. And yet the plant eventually achieved its goal of producing one B-24 Liberator bomber every hour. At peak production, in 1944, in just two days, 100 completed bombers took off from Willow Run airport. “Today in American History with Jeff Nilsson” can be heard on select public radio stations across the U.S. Image: B-24 bombers at the Willow Run plant (Library of Congress) Kevin Mccarthy: My dad ruined 3 of the B24's during the war. Got shot up so bad on bombing runs over Germany and flew as far away as possible with some engines out but could not make it back to the base in Italy. Bailed out over Yugoslavia once, crash landed one with no working landing gear on another day, and landed one on a metal fighter strip island base in the Adriatic and went off the end of the short strip into a field of mud but that one was so shot up it was done flying anyway. usually after a run on the target, the planes were full of holes and leaking fuel and oil badly. He flew fifty missions and actually flew a B24 fifty years later at an air show. He also went back to Yugoslavia 53 years later to a village he and crew had hid out in after baling out and some people remembered him and said his B24 is still up in the mountains where it crashed. Hoyt Drayer: My great grandfather, Henry Hoyt Gilbert was the chief engineer for Lincoln and Mercury from the 30s until he died in the 50s. During the war, he was heavily involved in making the B24 production line run as well, and he was still a middle-aged man when he kicked the bucket. The family concluded that his untimely death was from the stress of managing war production. |
 |
| MotorCities National Heritage Area posted On March 28, 1941, Ford Motor Company started clearing trees along hundreds of acres of land for what was to become its Willow Run plant near Ypsilanti, Michigan.Willow Run was the site where Henry Ford’s mass-production techniques would be applied to make B-24 bomber aircraft for World War II. #ArsenalOfDemocracy #ThisDayInAutoHeritage [Some comments also provide information about Gray Marine Motor Co. and Chris-Craft supporting the war effort.] Randall James Ellis: Worked at the Willow Run GM Transmission plant in 1994. The floor was slanted toward the hanger doors to that during the aircraft build could be manually pulled down the assembly line and out the doors. Curtis Jurrens: The last section of the Willow Run plant was saved by the Yankee Air Museum for their museum. Great organization, and they put on a helluva airshow eveti summer, Thunder Over Michigan. Jim Devitt: I understand they are now being forced to leave that location...very sad. [And some comments discuss how Packard built aircraft engines under contract with Rolls Royce that were more powerful than the British engines.] Then GM rented a section after terrible hydramatic fire in 1953. Eventually they took over the entire facility. https://www.assemblymag.com/.../95000-americas-most... [Comments claim that they could produce a plane every 60, 56 and 45 minutes.] Aaron Lesar: Plant building and logistics designed by Ford mastermind Charles Sorensen. |
 |
| Historical Pictures posted During WWII, workers at the Henry Ford aircraft factory Willow Run built a staggering 8,685 B-24 bombers in three years! No one had ever manufactured aircraft on such a scale before. At its peak in 1944, it produced a B-24 every hour. Additional fun fact: Rosie the Riveter worked at this plant. |
 |
| ThisDayInAviation |
I don't know if this press was in this plant, but some of the comments are about this plant. And I assume all of the plants had similar presses.
 |
| Sean Brady posted Lydia Martinez, aged 19, operates a hydro press that develops pressure up to 4,500 tons and speeds production of parts for Consolidated Aircraft's B-24 Liberators, PBY Catalinas, and PB2Y Coronados, 1942. Laszlo Zagyva: They built one B-24 Liberator airplane every 63 minutes in a Ford factory. Bob Darlington: Laszlo Zagyva A little misleading. It may have taken 5 days, but they'd still have a fresh new one coming out the back of the factory every 63 minutes when the planets lined up just the right way, and one starting every 63 minutes, with multiple days between start and finish. Mark George: Bob Darlington Willow Run made batches of about 400 Airplanes. Then the next batch would include small improvements to the Aircraft. The engineers would constantly make improvements to the B-24 Liberators, during the entire war years of production. Some 12,000 improvements were made over the first ones to be built. Laszlo Zagyva: https://www.thehenryford.org/.../digi.../expert-sets/101765/ Ken Andersen: The production in San Diego was almost the same, they would roll them out of the plant, start the engines, spin them on a compass rose on the tarmac, then ferry them to Arizona where modifications were installed. It was easier and faster to build them then install the mods than it was to revamp the production line to include the mods as they came in. Pete Putman: Laszlo Zagyva - And the assembly line at Willow Run made a 90-degree turn so as to come out of the factory entirely in Washtenaw County and avoid the higher taxes in Wayne County. At least, that was the legend. Laszlo Zagyva: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2zukteYbGQ& very interesting video on this. It seems that it took ... quite long. |
No comments:
Post a Comment