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Ford's Willow Run Factory

The Ford Willow Run Factory

   The Liberators flown by the crew while in training at Pueblo, and in combat in Italy, were manufactured at the Ford Willow Run plant in Michigan.
   The War Department asked Ford to put it's production know-how to the task of producing planes at an unprecedented rate - essentially the need was to build bombers faster than the enemy could shoot them down.
   The plant Ford built at Willow Run had an assembly line that was a mile long. At the peak of it's production, the assembly line was producing a Liberator an hour. Willow Run had its own airfield. It employed 30,000 workers.
   The first completed B-24 came off the assembly line at Willow Run on May 15, 1942. On June 28th, 1945 production Run ceased - 8,685 planes had been manufactured.


Assembly line at Willow Run

Nose sections. Tail sections (above) await installation

Installing an engine

Lathe operator

Drill press operators

Riveting a wing section
    
For everything you ever wanted to know about the Willow Run factory project, W.B. Kidder's excellent book, Willow Run - Colosses of American Industry can be obtained through a phone number on the Links page.