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

[Little Jo]

Hi All

The Genius of Henry Ford. This was before Pearl Harbor. Ford's B-24 Bomber Plant at Willow Run, MI. Henry Ford was determined that he could mass produce bombers just as he had done with cars. He built the Willow Run assembly plant and proved it. It was the world's largest building under one roof. Even then Ford had a better idea. This film will absolutely blow you away - one B-24 every 55 minutes. There ended todays lesson

https://youtu.be/iKlt6rNciTo

Enjoy

Tony

[Private_collector]

Nice!!!

Wish I could fly one of those.

Thanks Tony.

[maple_leaf_eh]

I toured a B24 at an airshow years ago. What surprised me most was how small these "big" bombers are inside. Yes, men were shorter two generations ago. But the bomb racks in a B17 are not very wide.

[Michael R.]

Who built the B-24 ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKlt6rNciTo#at=60

[motto]

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?

[John P]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2zukteYbGQ

[James P]

And if you like the B-24 and old pics from it in service check this site out. I always find it mind blowing the sheer amount of material pumped out of American factories to sustain the war effort around the globe during the Second World War. So grab a beverage, get comfortable and enjoy a nice collection of pics of Liberators.

https://b-24.weebly.com/

[motto]

I have applied 24 Squadron RAAF markings to my 3/4 ton Dodge Command Car in memory of a long term friend who did a tour of duty as Flight Engineer on B24's mostly based at Fenton in the Northern Territory. (Australia).
On occasion he also flew with an American Bombardment Group. The Americans were short of some categories of air crew and he had a citation thanking him for his service with the USAAF.
For the significant part they played in service in the SW Pacific not much coverage is given the Liberators.
I remember him saying that at one point he was sent as part of a ferry crew to pick up a new B24 from Tocumwal. They were a little taken aback when they learned it was built by Ford. Not impressed by Ford products apparently and here they were expected to fly one into combat.
Lindsay was an interesting fellow to talk too as prior to retraining on B24's he had done a tour as F/E on Catalinas with No11 Squadron.

David

[Hanno Spoelstra]

As you can see I have merged all the threads on Ford's B24 bomber production posted over the years.

My contribution to this interesting topic is the picture below, showing that by size the B24 was the largest piece of war equipment manufactured by Ford. And Ford was the largest builder of B24's at 8,685 out of a total of approx. 18,500. Willow Run was the world's largest one-story war production plant, churning out an airplane every 63 minutes. Typical Ford manufacturing superlatives.

More superlatives: Ford used a special Twin V8 Tractor to haul 60-foot-long supertrailers, chock full of parts for the B-24 bomber.


Source: Ford Model Designations