Building The B-24 Bomber During WWII "Story of Willow Run"

[motto (RIP)]

Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation were the designers and builders of the B24 Liberator but the demand was greater than they could supply and as with the Willys MB, Ford became involved in the manufacture of somebody else's product.

I had a friend who was a flight engineer on B24s and I recall him telling me of being sent to Tocumwal (NSW, Australia) to pick up a new aircraft and the crew were astonished to find that it was Ford built.

Even in those days the male population of Australia seemed to be divided into two camps, Ford or GM(Chev) devotees. The pro GM crew members were sceptical that Ford could build a decent aeroplane as "they couldn't even build a decent car". I understand that Ford built B24s performed just as well as Consolidated.

I have the hydraulic and armament manuals for the B24D and both are Consolidated Vultee publications but not entirely. The section of the armaments manual devoted to maintenance of the .50 calibre M2 machine gun was put out by Training Services, General Motors War Products and prepared by the AC Spark Plug and Frigidaire Divisions.

Everybody had a finger in the pie.

David

[Keith Webb]

There were some interesting aspects to the way Ford built them too.

Ford was no stranger to aircraft manufacture of course with their famous Trimotor, but they revolutionised the way the B-24s were built by making use of lessons learned in car manufacture. One of these was extensive use of drilling and tapping jigs.

I may have the figures wrong, but from memory it used to take many hours for Consolidated to drill and tap all the holes in the main spar section which supported the centre of the aircraft including the bomb bay.

Ford designed a jig which did the operation far more accurately and reduced the time from many hours to just two minutes!

[Tony Smith]

While Henry Ford lent his immense mass production skills to the war effort, he relied on assistance from Charles Lindbergh for Aviation expertise.

Despite the undoubted contribution these two made to the war effort, both were viewed at the time as suspected Nazi Sympathisers. They were prominent in the pre-war (Dec '41 in the US) movement to keep the US out of the European war, and both were highly regarded by the Nazi regime. Significantly, both too had been the subject of scandals for apparent anti-semitic views.

[Lynn Eades]

I read somewhere that Henry built more vehicles for the Axis (not by choice, but because his factories were over run) than for the Allies. How true is this?

[Keith Webb]

Originally Posted by Lynn Eades

I read somewhere that Henry built more vehicles for the Axis (not by choice, but because his factories were over run) than for the Allies. How true is this?

Both Ford and GM built axis vehicles once they had been taken over by the enemy.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Keith Webb

Both Ford and GM built axis vehicles once they had been taken over by the enemy.

There's more to it than merely bring taken over, see http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...nazicars30.htm for example....

Indeed, who knew?

[Lynn Eades]

A very interesting article Hanno. Not quite my schoolboy image of Ford or G.M.
It seems at least, of the big three, Chrysler had a lot less egg on its face.
You have somewhat damaged my heroic picture of Henry Ford. Interesting that it said Hitler could not have considered invading Czechoslovakia, without G.M.
Thanks for posting.