Saving the Willow Run Bomber Plant
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Saving The Willow Run Bomber Plant Yankee Air Museum Willow Run Bomber Plant Project. Construction Update – End of first year of the restoration – March 2016 By Dennis Norton Founder of the Yankee Air Museum and President of the Michigan Aerospace Foundation A Little History - In 2010, General Motors Corporation abandoned the Willow Run Powertrain production facility as part of its bankruptcy re-organization. This 5 million square foot plant dates back to March of 1941 when construction began on what at the time was to become the largest manufacturing plant under one roof in the entire world. This plant, designed by famed Ford Motor Company industrialist Charles Sorenson was planned because the United States needed 18,000 B-24 bombers to fight the Axis powers during World War II. At the time, Consolidated Aircraft in California was building one B-24 per month. The only way to produce the numbers President Roosevelt demanded for the war effort was to “build them on an automotive style assembly line” – so said Henry Ford. The President listened to him, looked at Sorenson’s plans for what would become the Willow Run Bomber Plant and after hearing that Ford could build one B-24 per hour instead of one B-24 per month, Roosevelt was convinced. Ford was given the largest contract ever signed at that point in time by the US Government and Willow Run was born. Construction began in March, 1941. In just 18 months, Willow Run was built and in September of 1942, the very first B-24 rolled off the Willow Run Assembly line. Once production got into full swing, the plant began operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. By late 1944, Willow Run was producing one B-24 every 55 minutes – 25 per day. The B-24 Bomber Plant at Willow Run was the most significant and visible piece of the Arsenal of Democracy that was Detroit and SE Michigan during World War II. All major automotive companies along with numerous Automotive Suppliers came together to participate in the manufacturing of the Willow Run B-24s. For example, Nash, now owned by Chrysler, supplied the propellers for the Chevrolet built B-24 engines. Many sub-assemblies and individual components were produced by companies large and small, all over Michigan and Northern Ohio. Without the most modern aircraft manufacturing technology in the world at that time, and the beginning of “Just In Time Manufacturing”, both of which were hallmarks of Willow Run, the Allies would have had a very difficult time winning World War II. Willow Run was a banner of success not only to the war effort, but to the social fabric of SE Michigan. Thousands of workers came from all over the country to work at Willow Run. Over 70,000 people went through the workforce at Willow Run over the 3 ½ years of production, and many more tens of thousands worked at Willow Run after the War, all the way up to 2010. Ford brought women into the industrial workforce in large numbers for the very first time and they were brought in with equal pay and equal opportunity for advancement. Women made up almost half of the workforce, were supervisors and even test pilots flying the B-24s at Willow Run. The Rosie The Riveter story began at Willow Run with a young woman named Rose Will Monroe. It was a union work force and an integrated Saving The Willow Run Bomber Plant workforce. The University of Michigan was deeply involved in training workers and planning housing for numbers that overwhelmed the small towns and townships surrounding Willow Run. After the war, Ford sold the Plant to Kaiser Fraser and the US Government sold the airport to the University of Michigan. Kaiser Fraser built about 800,000 automobiles at Willow Run along with a two year run of C-119 Flying Boxcars. In 1953, General Motors lost its Livonia transmission plant to a fire and leased Willow Run from Kaiser Fraser. A short time later, General Motors purchased the plant and used it to manufacture over 80 million automobile transmissions until 2010. So this plant has a tremendously proud history and the surrounding towns and townships and dozens of Michigan companies all played a significant role in the history of Willow Run. How it came to be the future home of the Yankee Air Museum - In 2010, I met with Bob Lutz and Selim Bingol from GM and we talked about the possibility of the Yankee Air Museum temporarily storing our B-17 in the Roll Out Hangar of the old Bomber Plant. Unfortunately, ownership had already been transferred to the RACER Trust during the bankruptcy proceedings. GM Real Estate facilitated a meeting with the RACER Trust and I expressed our desire to allow the Yankee Air Museum to save a small portion of the Bomber Plant, preserving this important piece of local and national history with the eventual goal of relocating the museum into the building. In 2012, when it became apparent that no one wanted to purchase the entire plant because it was too old, too big and not easily repurposed for a new owner, RACER made the decision to offer to let us buy the very end of the plant if we could prove that we had the ability to raise the funds necessary to eventually restore and use the building. We did that through a tremendously successful campaign and on October 30, 2014 we closed on the purchase of 144,000 sq ft of the old Willow Run Bomber Plant along with 17 acres of land. Restoration plans were already well underway at the time of the purchase and work began on December 16, 2014. These two photos, taken well before we purchased the building show the condition of the interior before demolition. Saving The Willow Run Bomber Plant This photo shows the outline in red of the 5 million square feet of the Bomber Plant and GM facility after demolition in November, 2014. The only piece left standing is the Roll Out Hangar that the Yankee Air Museum purchased on October 30, 2014. This represents slightly less than 3% of the total plant prior to demolition. Bordering Willow Run Airport, our facility when restored will house almost all of our aircraft collection. The flyable aircraft, our B-17, C-47, B-25 and Waco will remain in Hangar 1 which will be connected to the museum by a short enclosed walkway. To understand how much work was done during the first year, you would have to have seen the building when we took possession. A few of the following photos will give some sense of the magnitude of the job just cleaning it up and turning it back into a basically functionally shell of a building. Saving The Willow Run Bomber Plant These two photos taken on November 7, 2014, show the Yankee Air Museum Bomber Plant from the air shortly after we purchased the building, saving it from Demolition. The building was originally connected to the plant, so when the balance of the plant was demolished, the building was left with only 2 ½ walls. The entire North end of the building and part of the West side of the building were open. Saving The Willow Run Bomber Plant These two photos show the North end of the building in November 2014, shortly after we purchased it. Saving The Willow Run Bomber Plant December 16, 2014 - WORK BEGINS – If you look closely at the photo showing the roof (two pages prior to this page) you will see a large 8’x8’ hole in the roof just beyond the large rooftop enclosure above the open North Wall. The very first job was to close up that hole to prevent water intrusion from the roof. Since rooftop access was lost when the balance of the plant was demolished, the decision was made to close that large hole with a new rooftop access hatch, killing two birds with one stone. Our General Contractor, Phoenix Construction, brought in Morkin & Sowards and JSC Construction to rebuild the roof and add a new roof hatch and ladder. This work was finished on December 21, 2014, becoming the very first renovation/restoration piece of the project. Saving The Willow Run Bomber Plant Demolition The interior of the Roll Out Hangar had been modified greatly over the years by GM. Our intention was to remove all of the modifications, open up all the walls and attempt to restore the inside to its original look as much as would be possible. In this photo, the Mezzanine 2nd and 3rd floors are enclosed with makeshift walls. Looking at a later photo you will see how we opened up the entire Mezzanine. This photo shows demolition work beginning on the Mezzanine area with some of the 2nd floor wall removed. Interior demolition and clean up took three months to complete. Saving The Willow Run Bomber Plant Power Washing and Cleanup In addition to demolition, we had to power wash the entire inside of the building to remove over 70 years of accumulated dirt, grease and grime. Power washing by Arch Environmental took an additional three months to complete. Saving The Willow Run Bomber Plant Steel Reinforcing The demolition of the balance of the old Bomber Plant left the Roll Out Hangar with no external support. It had been structurally tied into the demolished portion of the building since 1941. In addition, the carved out section of the building had never before experienced wind load because it was protected from the wind by the rest of the plant.