B-24 on Tarmac being prepped for flight.

Fig 2

[caption id="attachment_86" align="alignleft" width="837"] Willow Run Assembly Plant-Courtesy Ford Motor Co. -[/caption]

This is a Air Force Historical Society photo of a B-24(Fig 2) as it is being readied for its initial flight check and quality control at one of the 5 factories that were used to build these aircraft. At the height of production the Ford Assembly Plant at Willow Run in Ypsilanti, Michigan produced one aircraft every 70 minutes. This plant was not a Consolidated Aircraft Factory but it produced over half of these aircraft in 3 short years. That number was around 9000 planes from this one factory.

The factories that made this aircraft are listed below: (Fig 1)
To meet the foreseen large demand for the B-24, the government set up a consortium of aircraft manufacturers and plants to build the plane:

CO - Consolidated/San Diego plant
CF - Consolidated/Fort Worth plant
DT - Douglas/Tulsa plant
FO - Ford/Willow Run plant
NT - North American/Dallas plant

The story of Ford's Willow Run (fig 1) plant could fill a book in itself. They broke ground in April, 1941; by September, it was complete - an 80 acre factory. Dormitories were built on the site and a commuter rail line was extended to it. Designed by Ford executives like Charles Sorenson, Willow Run got off to a slow start, as its automobile, assembly-line style of manufacturing had to be adapted to aircraft production. By mid-1943, with 42,000 employees, it began to turn out B-24s - 230 per month. By the end of 1944, 650 per month. When production ended in April, 1945, Willow Run had turned out over 8,600 Liberators. (Photo and Story provided by http://acepilots.com/planes/b24.html)