The Willow Run manufacturing plant, located between Ypsilanti and Belleville, Michigan, was constructed during World War II by Ford Motor Company for the mass production of the B-24 Liberator military aircraft.[1]
After the war, ownership of the assembly plant passed to Kaiser Motors and then to Ford rival General Motors, which now owns and operates part of the facility as Willow Run Transmission.
Willow Run was used by GM to manufacture a number of models, including Chevy trucks (1956–58), the Nova and Caprice. It was also used to manufacture parts for the Vega subcompact. Perhaps the most well-known product assembled at Willow Run was the Chevrolet Corvair. Most Corvairs were built there from 1960 through 1969.
GM's Fisher Body division was also located at Willow Run, and built bodies for the Chevrolet models assembled there.
In 1968, General Motors reorganized its body assembly divisions into the monolithic GM Assembly Division (GMAD). GMAD absorbed many Fisher body plants, but Willow Run was one of the plants where Fisher continued to build bodies until the 1970s.
On June 1, 2009, GM announced it would be closing the plant as part of its bankruptcy proceedings.[2][3]
The plant has given its name to a community on the east side of Ypsilanti, defined roughly by the boundaries of the Willow Run Community Schools district.
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The site of the plant was a farm owned by Henry Ford. He had used the farm to provide summer employment for youths. Ford Motor Company, like virtually all of the United States' industrial companies, directed its manufacturing output during WWII for Allied war production. The Ford Motor Company developed the Willow Run site to include an airfield and aircraft assembly facility. The plant held the distinction of being the world's largest enclosed "room." At its peak, Willow Run produced 650 B-24s per month by 1944. By 1945, Ford produced 70% of the B-24s in two nine hour shifts. Pilots and crews slept on 1,300 cots waiting for the B-24s to roll off the assembly line at Willow Run. Ford produced half of the 18,000 total B-24s at Willow Run. The B-24 holds the distinction of being the most produced heavy bomber in history.[1][4]
An interesting feature of the Willow Run plant was a large turntable two-thirds of the way along the assembly line where the B-24s would make a 90° turn before continuing to final assembly. This arrangement was to avoid having the factory building cross a county line and be taxed by two counties. The neighboring county's taxes were higher.[5]
After war production ended, the plant was used by a partnership of Henry J. Kaiser and Joseph W. Frazer. They produced both Kaiser and Frazer models beginning in 1947(including the compact "Henry J," which was also sold through Sears-Roebuck as the "Sears Allstate") until 1953, when Kaiser Industries purchased Willys-Overland and consolidated all passenger-vehicle operations at the former Willys-Overland plant in Toledo, Ohio. (At that time, Kaiser Industries phased out its Kaiser and Willys passenger-car lines, ending all but Jeep and Willys pickup/station wagon production by 1955.) Later in 1953, after a disastrous fire (on August 12) destroyed General Motors Detroit Transmission factory in Livonia, Michigan, the plant was first leased to GM, and eventually sold to it, with the salvaged Hydra-Matic transmission tooling and machinery relocated to Willow Run, and put back into production just nine weeks after the fire.[6]
B-24s were not the only planes produced at Willow Run. From 1952 to 1953, the facility was used by Kaiser to assemble Fairchild C-119 "Flying Boxcar" cargo planes.
Sociologist and professor Lowell Juilliard Carr of the University of Michigan studied the sociological conditions arising from the wartime increase in the worker population in his landmark book on Willow Run in 1952.[7]
On the other side of the airport from the assembly plant were a group of World War II hangars, which were sold to the University of Michigan in 1946. The university operated Willow Run Laboratories (WRL) from 1946 to 1972. WRL produced many innovations, including first ruby laser and operation of the ruby maser. In 1972, demonstrations by anti-Vietnam War activists forced the university to detach WRL from it.
The airfield continues to operate as the Willow Run Airport. The airfield is primarily used for cargo and general aviation flights. The Yankee Air Museum is also located on the airport grounds. On October 9, 2004, a fire destroyed the museum's main hangar, H-2041.
During the Vietnam war the military contracted with General Motors Hydramatic division at Willow Run to make its new M16 rifle, and also a 20mm autocannon. Gun production was stopped in the early '70s.
In addition to transmissions and guns, Willow Run assembled Chevrolet trucks from 1956-58. A new plant was built on the site for assembly of the new-for-1960 Chevrolet Corvair, and two years later, the Chevy II. Other models assembled at Willow Run include the full-size Chevrolet Caprice.
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