At Ford’s Willow Run plant in Michigan, history wasn’t made on the battlefield but on the assembly line.
By November 1943, the factory was producing a brand-new B-24 Liberator bomber every single hour. In August 1944, monthly production hit a peak of 428 aircraft. And in one remarkable stretch — between April 24 and 26, 1944 — 100 bombers rolled out in just three days.
By 1945, Ford’s workforce was working two nine-hour shifts, building 70% of all Liberators used in the war. In total, Willow Run produced 6,972 completed bombers, plus nearly 1,900 kits that were assembled elsewhere.
The result? The B-24 became the most-produced heavy bomber in history, a powerful symbol of American industrial strength.
Willow Run was building more than planes — it stood as proof of what ordinary workers, driven by purpose and urgency, could accomplish together.