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Ford's B-24 production in Detroit in WWII
public fotki ^

Posted on 03/09/2010 7:50:58 AM PST by shove_it

Ford built at least 8000 B-24 aircraft in WWII. This a collection of 291 B&W photos from the Henry Ford Museum taken at the old Willow Run Airport and Ford Motor Co. in Detroit. During the war automobile manufacturing was suspended so that GM, Ford, etc., could concentrate on the manufacture of military vehicles and aircraft. Ford Motor Company's assembly line was located adjacent to Willow Run.

The government and Boeing company told Henry Ford during the war that he could not build an airplane like a car on an assembly line. He built the freeway to the plant, built the B-24 plant and spit them out one per hour. This is an interesting bit of history that you may enjoy and share with your children and perhaps your grandchildren as this involved the "greatest generation".


TOPICS: VetsCoR
KEYWORDS: b24; ford; liberator; willowrun
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291 photo slideshow
1 posted on 03/09/2010 7:50:58 AM PST by shove_it
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To: shove_it
Back when socialists were not in charge...
2 posted on 03/09/2010 7:53:42 AM PST by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: shove_it
Charlie Sorensen's Story
3 posted on 03/09/2010 7:54:33 AM PST by smokingfrog (You can't ignore your boss and expect to keep your job... WWW.filipthishouse2010.com)
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To: smokingfrog

Great link!


4 posted on 03/09/2010 7:57:32 AM PST by shove_it (and have a nice day)
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To: shove_it

I grew up in Ann Arbor, MI during the 1960s. When I was in Junior High, a friend went down to the old Willow Run plant. He discovered an area where they test-fired the .50 caliber guns from the B-24s into a sand pit. When he dug into the sand, he discovered a bunch of .50 caliber slugs in it.

He took about two dozen and gave me half. We drilled holes through them, strung them together on leather thongs, and took them to school as “war beads” (mocking our hippie friends with peace beads).

How long ago was that? So long ago that the teachers approved of what we did.


5 posted on 03/09/2010 8:00:35 AM PST by No Truce With Kings (The opinions expressed are mine! Mine! MINE! All Mine!)
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To: shove_it
B-17's in Seattle.....
6 posted on 03/09/2010 8:01:28 AM PST by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: shove_it

mark


7 posted on 03/09/2010 8:02:08 AM PST by Former Proud Canadian (How do I change my screen name now that we have the most conservative government in the world?)
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To: No Truce With Kings

Wow you could get a life sentence for that now !


8 posted on 03/09/2010 8:08:03 AM PST by timeflies
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To: No Truce With Kings
Cool!

My Dad was an IE at the AC plant in Flint. When the war broke out, his team was sent to the Colt Firearms plant in Hartford, CT to study their manufacturing processes for the 50 cal. machine gun. When he told the Colt engineers that AC was going to mass produce them, the Colt folks said it couldn't be done but it was done mainly by unskilled women production workers.

9 posted on 03/09/2010 8:12:21 AM PST by shove_it (and have a nice day)
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To: shove_it

Thanks! I especially enjoyed the assault glider pics. What a collection of pictures of a time when America COULD and WOULD! Now it seems any new idea is just TALKED TO death!


10 posted on 03/09/2010 8:28:13 AM PST by Howie
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To: shove_it

ping for later


11 posted on 03/09/2010 8:29:25 AM PST by ruptured duck (He shoots....and boom goes the dynamite!)
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To: shove_it

My husband grew up in Detroit during WWII. Family entertainment used to be to go down to the Chrysler proving grounds and watch the tanks roll out and take a turn around the field before being turned over to the Army. They had bleachers set up and all the neighborhood would go and cheer them on. We took our entertainment where we could get it during the War.


12 posted on 03/09/2010 8:34:02 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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To: shove_it

Great slideshow! Thanks very much for posting.


13 posted on 03/09/2010 8:36:00 AM PST by PGalt
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To: No Truce With Kings

There’s a photo of that sand pit in the slideshow but you’re gonna hafta hunt for it - it’s somewhere around half way thru as I recall.


14 posted on 03/09/2010 8:37:52 AM PST by shove_it (and have a nice day)
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To: No Truce With Kings

Quelle horreur! How could you commit such a hate crime?


15 posted on 03/09/2010 8:38:41 AM PST by rex regnum insanit (falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus)
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To: shove_it; Veeram

Thanks for posting...this is good stuff!


16 posted on 03/09/2010 8:43:27 AM PST by rlmorel (We are traveling "The Road to Serfdom".)
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To: shove_it

Ping for later.


17 posted on 03/09/2010 8:43:35 AM PST by Redleg Duke
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To: shove_it

Fantastic! Thanks for posting.


18 posted on 03/09/2010 9:01:10 AM PST by Captain Rhino (“Si vis pacem, para bellum” - if you want peace, prepare for war.)
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To: timeflies

“Wow you could get a life sentence for that now !”

Nah. Only ten years max. Now the time I staged a coup d’etat during the dictatorship simulation in my eigth-grade civics class (complete with firing a cap pistol into the ceiling) — that I could get a life sentence for today.

Back then I had the teacher laughing so hard that he was virtually in tears. Besides, he took the effort (coordinated with three other students) as a sign that we were paying attention to what he was teaching.

Of course back then they had firearms safety classes at the school, and kids would make rifle stocks as projects in woodshop classes. It was the last decade that public education was still sane.


19 posted on 03/09/2010 9:02:55 AM PST by No Truce With Kings (The opinions expressed are mine! Mine! MINE! All Mine!)
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To: 2banana

they just weren’t so pernicious as they are now, but tiularly, they were in charge...that’s why we had a 10 year depression before the war rather than a short one or two year problem.


20 posted on 03/09/2010 9:05:43 AM PST by stefanbatory (Weed out the RINOs! Sign the pledge. conservativepledge.org)
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