Save the Bomber Plant: Hangar 1 Replacement Project!
We’ve saved Rosie’s factory from demolition, and the renovation process has begun. Let’s keep the progress going!
Together, we can preserve the history of Willow Run and build the future NEW home of the Yankee Air Museum. Please give generously!
With overwhelming nationwide support from people like you, we raised the money needed to purchase and save from demolition approximately 144,000 sq. ft. of the historic WWII Willow Run Bomber Plant near Ypsilanti, MI!
Now, we’re asking you to help us raise funds for renovation work required to transform the Bomber Plant into the future NEW home of the Yankee Air Museum!
Thank you for your support!
The Michigan Aerospace Foundation
The Yankee Air Museum
Campaign Co-chairmen: Jack Lousma, NASA Astronaut (retired); Bob Lutz, GM Executive (retired)
Willow Run — An American Achievement Story
World War II was a time when all Americans pulled together to join with their Allies and literally “save the world.” WWII was a time when everybody — from our President, our military, our industrial leaders, and everyday working men and women — was asked to “Do Their Part.” They proved that together “We Can Do It!” This was truly our finest hour as Americans, and a story to inspire future generations.
What better place to share that story than a preserved portion of Willow Run? With your help, we can preserve our history for future generations, and do much more. (Click here to see the Museum Concept Rendering.)
- Willow Run’s ability to produce aircraft quickly was critical to winning WWII.
- Willow Run — part of Detroit’s Arsenal of Democracy — was considered one of the finest and most ambitious “American Production Miracles.” It was the first aircraft manufacturing plant to build bombers on an assembly line. Henry Ford, his engineers and builders, and the dedicated workers that flowed into Michigan from every state and territory, proved that not only could bombers be built on a line, they could be produced at the astonishing rate of one per hour. Previously, it took about one month to build one bomber.
- Willow Run was at the front and center of social change in an unprecedented era of expanded opportunity for men and women. Willow Run, employed 42,000 workers including an unprecedented percentage of women factory workers called Rosies, was the largest factory under one roof in the world, offered equal pay for equal work and firmly laid the groundwork for sweeping social change.