The building trades have worked to renovate and upgrade at the Willow Run plant a number of times over the years, but its basic design and purpose haven’t changed since it was built in 1942

Hardhats also work to renovate scores of auto assembly and supplier plants around Michigan, but few plants have the history associated with Willow Run. Following are a few nuggets of interest concerning the plant. The information is gleaned from Wayne State history professor Charles Hyde, Assembly Magazine, and other sources:

• Albert Kahn, the plant’s architect, preferred numerous windows and skylights in his plant designs, but not at Willow Run. The reason: The War Department feared the German air force would at some point be able to seize a refueling site in the North Atlantic, and thus be able to launch a long-range bomber that would be able to hit the plant at night.
• With the World War II war machine cranking up, steel was in short supply, as was time to build plants. So instead of a requiring new and unique structural elements, Kahn designed the Willow Run plant to use steel that manufacturers had already made.
• A persistent story that is “probably true,” Hyde said, had Henry Ford installing an L-shaped bend in the B-24 assembly line, but not for any practical reason. The bend, complete with a turntable, allowed him to avoid extending the plant, on the border of Washtenaw County, into Wayne County. Ford wanted to avoid paying higher taxes to Wayne County.
• For as long as possible, Ford also fought the federal government and sought to keep the tens of thousands of the plant’s UAW members – who were also typically Democrats – from living around the Willow Run plant. Ford fought the construction of permanent housing, so dormitories and even tents provided shelter. Workers drove to work or were bussed in. “He didn’t want Democrats tipping the balance of power in Washtenaw County,” Hyde said.
• Numerous “little people” were employed by Ford to build the B-24. They were better able to fit into tight spaces in wings and fuselages.
• When the B-24s first came off the line, only about half of the first 107 bombers delivered were acceptable to the Army Air Corps, in good part because of the use of hard steel dies – rather than soft steel dies that were more conducive to change orders. The plant was dubbed “Will-It Run” – but later lost that nickname with a stellar quality record for the B-24s as time went on.

According to Assembly Magazine, “The B-24, also known as the ‘Liberator’ and the ‘Flying Boxcar,’ was credited with helping the United States and its Allies win the war. Four 1,200-hp Pratt & Whitney engines enabled the plane to fly long distances loaded with more than 8,000 pounds of bombs. The 30-ton plane could fly up to 300 miles an hour with a ceiling of 30,000 feet and a range of 3,000 miles. Because of these features, the B-24 was capable of high-altitude precision bombing at heights beyond the range of antiaircraft fire.”

The late UAW President Walter Reuther said, “Like England’s battles were won on the playing fields of Eton, America’s were won on the assembly lines of Detroit.”