History OT Willow Run Bomber Plant WWII

http://public.fotki.com/Kos/members_photo_galle/wiilow_run_bomber/?cmd=fs_slideshow

Check this out, I hope it to be OK. Very Interesting photos!

 

BOY! After looking at those pictures you'd think everthing Ford built was cool looking. Very neat..... Thanks For The Post.

 

Awesome find!

 

you can't help but think of the early pioneers of this field...moving so rapidly foward..and retooling..at a moments notice..this is the standard by which we all are either exalted or deminished..God bless the USA !!!

 

Cool My granfather worked there building B24s during the war. I have some of his old p***es to willow run.

 

This was the first attempt to build aircraft on an ***embly line. By the end of the war a B-24 was completed every 63 minutes.

 

No worky for me.
Got the spinning Fotki logo, a "loading" bar or graph that stayed at I THINK 89% for about 10 minutes.

At work with a *****in' T1 connection.

 

them are some cool pics

 

Wizard, awsome site.

 

Gota love the Liberators! My grandfather flew one in WWII. His was built by Ford at the Wilmington plant too. Said they used to call them "Whistling **** houses" and that those planes could take so much abuse from gunfire and flak that it was almost unbelivable. He has a picture with him and his co-piolet both sticking their heads through a flak hole in the wing at the same time and making a suprised face at each other. Priceless

 

Thank You. What a facility.

BTW, What was Willow LOdge, worker housing?

I want one of them bomb handler trucks

 

Great slideshow..

 

Absolutely incredible pictures, thanks for posting this!
My dad was a bombardier on a B17 during WWII.

In the early 80's I talked with the manager of the Boeing plant in Everett, WA.............he told me that the way Boeing was manufacturing the 747-400 was the same way they manfactured the B17........................and that they could slide a B17 into the same ***embly line as the 747-400 without a blink of an eye. He had been with Boeing for some 40 years at that time. At that time Boeing had the largest ***embly line under one roof in the world.

Love aviation almost as much as cars..........................and my wife.

 

Pity that the Yankee Air Museum burned to the ground a few years ago... It was basically a temporary plywood hanger only meant to last a few years, but stood for almost 60yrs.

The museum hosts an old warbird gathering every August to raise $$ for the foundation. The show always includes a load of very cool old military vehivles, tanks, troop transporters, etc... Lots of old cars in the parking lot too. It's always a great day there.

I can't wait to see the new place!

 

I remember seeing pictures at one time of a fleet of COE's used to haul B24 wing ***y's from Willow Run to some place else. Each had 2 flathead Ford V8's side by side . One ran the front set of tandems the other ran the rear set. They looked a couple feet wider than normal but were used over the road at that time. Must have been fun double clutching one of those! I always hoped to see how they were set up, but never saw anything else about them.

 

very cool, thanks!

 

Fantastic slide show!

 

One of the photos shows the 5000th B-24 test firing its guns. I remember seeing the remains of that same bunker at Willow Run Airport well into the 1950's.

 

They were used for out of state employees and the military that were based there during the war. Two of my uncles worked there building B-24's until they were drafted. An old man that I worked with for years built the engines at the plant. All three drive back and forth from Detroit to the plant using Ecorse Rd. or Michigan Ave., There was no I-94 expressway back then. A lot of the times they would work Doubles and triples and just sleep in their car or the plant.
My other uncle was a machanic for a B-24 named "SNAFU" and after the war he became an engineer for Ford at the Test track, which is located where the Ford Airport was on Oakwood Blvd. He also run the windtunnel when Bill Cosby was doing the Ford Ads in the 70's.
Willow Run is still there and the Yankee Air Force flies in and out of it. They will take you for rides in their B-17 airplane for $400.00 a person. They had a fire there at their hanger a few years ago, but they got the airplanes out. They did lose all their memorabilia and all their reference material.
One more thing Connie Kalita's air freight flies out of there and the Mythbusters flipped the car, bus and airplane there.
George

 

some great old photos..dig the ****pit shots

 

Thanks for the link. Awesome to say the least!

This past September I was given a ride on a B17 that took off and landed at Willow Run.

Here is a short video I made in flight:
<embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i36.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid36.photobucket.com/albums/e46/ChevyGirlRox/Yankee%20Lady%20B17%20ride%202008/B17155.flv">

It was amazing to fly in. If you ever have the opportunity I highly encourage it!

 

Very cool Chevygirl... ya gotta love the 909!

Cool pics of the Willow Run plant by the way!!!

 

Yesterday I drove onto the Yankee Air Force grounds at Willow Run just to look at the static display aircraft there. Boy it gave me a sense of being on hallowed ground. After viewing the photo slide show I have qiestions:

Are the bomb shelters / tunnels still there?

It looks like the YAF has a B24 under construction on the field, no?

On the north side of Ecorse Road (WR is on the south side) there is a huge tract of vacant land now, fenced off. Was that part of the Army barracks?


Great video ChevyGirl. I saw that B17 at the Monroe Airport a couple years ago.

 

Not quite. The B-17 she went up in would be Yankee Lady, more here http://www.yankeeairmuseum.org/

 

YAF has the PB4Y-2 Privateer (navy single tail B-24) that they are doing some work on. They just got a couple truckloads of B-24 parts and they are working on building a diorama with them. Here's their site. http://www.yankeeairmuseum.org/ Thunder Over Michigan is their annual air show. It's one of the better ones in the country for sure. Last year they had the Collings Foundation "Witchcraft" and the CAF "Ol 927" there flying together. I didn't get to go but I from the photos it was pretty cool to see the only 2 airworthy examples in the air together.

These pics are AMAZING. There were only 3 in the whole album that I had seen before. Wow.

That '41 Ford Sinclair gas truck is *****in!

Lots of '42 Fords too. Cool. And how did that '42 Chevy sneak onto the property?!

Ford jet engine testing? I had no idea.

The 5000th Liberator with the V8 logo. That rules.

I think there is only 1 single Ford B-24 left. Plus parts of a few.

 

Oops, you type faster than I do! Hahaha!

 

Looks like we got his account blocked due to too much traffic to the link.

 

Ahhh man, no workey. Exceeded its traffic quota or some ****? Remind me again of how we won a whole war but cant share some pictures??

 

I waved at you when I flew over your house!

Since we broke the other guy's link, here are some more pics and video from my ride to hold you over!
http://s36.photobucket.com/albums/e46/ChevyGirlRox/Yankee Lady B17 ride 2008/?start=all