Saturday, September 24, 2022

We are - or at least have been - very productive when we need to be...

 

A B-17 heavy bomber in production, 1942 at the Willow Run manufacturing complex, located between Ypsilanti and Belleville, Michigan. At the time it was the largest single covered structure ever built.

Henry Ford designed and built this plant. At one point, they could make one plane every hour.




5 comments:

  1. Only B-24 bombers were built at Willow Run.

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  2. A B-17 every hour... when they were losing 10% every mission I wonder if a day would cover the losses? A couple of days of bad weather over the ball bearing factory in Germany would give them time to get ahead...
    All kidding aside, that is an amazing feat!

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  3. I'm pretty sure the Willow Run plant only assembled Consolidated B-24 Liberators. B-17's were built in Seattle, Long Beach and Burbank. And, the time required to build one individual unit verses how often one unit was completed are two completely different times. While one new B-24 rolled off the Willow Run line every hour, I'm pretty sure its beginning was substantially more than 60 minutes prior.

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  4. the B-17 wasn't built at Willow Run

    The B-24 was built there-- the plant never built B-17;s

    (my father worked there 1942-1944)

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  5. Uhm... Willow Run made B-24s. At their peak production, one rolled out the door every hour.

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Our friends at Twisted Hillbilly know a beautiful gal when they see one - no matter where she's from...

I believe her name is Diletta Leotta. She's a country gal,  but not from this country. She's from Italy...