Not Model A but Ford!

[Fred K-OR]

Interesting airplane video. Ford shows how to make many of these B 24's.

Thought you may all enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/iKlt6rNciTo?rel=0

[Deny1950]

cool video hard to believe they could put them out at one every 50 minutes. Were those the ones they called widow makers? Thanks for posting Denis

[mhsprecher]

It took them a long time to get the process right. Years.

[ericr]

Originally Posted by mhsprecher

It took them a long time to get the process right. Years.

the plant had the nickname of "Willit Run".

I guess they should have had Forever4 in charge LOL

[Slowplane]

Originally Posted by Deny1950

cool video hard to believe they could put them out at one every 50 minutes. Were those the ones they called widow makers? Thanks for posting Denis

No, that was the Martin B26 Marauder.

[Patrick L.]

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Of all the manufacturers of the B24 my father always said the Fords were the best.

He flew B24s [ WW2], C54s [ Berlin] and B29s [ Korea].

The others had more problems than the Fords, they had some issues, just not as many as the others. I thought it amazing that one could roll off the line every 55 minutes.

There are only 2 actual B24s left flying and I was able to ride in the nose of Witch Craft for the Watkins Glen NASCAR opening several years ago. One of the greatest experiences of this one's meager life.

The B24 seems to be everything the B17 isn't. I have 28-29hrs in the right seat of a B17. The B17 is quiet, smooth, stable and very well mannered which is everything the B24 is not. They are rude, noisy, vibrate, and a hand full, which, is everything I like !

[Patrick L.]

Originally Posted by Slowplane

No, that was the Martin B26 Marauder.

There was an old saying, 'one a day in Tampa Bay'. My father said the B26 flew nice until an engine failed [ or was failed/practice] then they became hand full. If I remember correctly there were some changes made to make them more user friendly.

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

The neat thing about being OLD, I remember lots of this stuff!
In school, we studied aircraft identification charts, kept up on newspaper accounts of the war, made models of the planes, etc. EVERYBODY was a booster of what we had to do!
Bill Old

[mhsprecher]

Charlie Sorensen was in charge of the Willow Run plant. He has a chapter in his book, which I have recommended before, on this effort. I think there are other books and write ups on WR.

[mshmodela]

Ford made Jeeps in WWII too but some get there feathers up about mentioning things non-model a.. Great video, thanks for posting...

[Jeff/Illinois]

My dad's best friend was a B-24 pilot. 44th Bomb Group (Heavy).Trained on the 17's then they switched him over when he got to England. He hated that thing (the B-24) said it was real physical to fly, had a weak wing structure that took nothing to fold it over the fuselage, and was basically a cheap aluminum skinned frame full of gasoline and bombs. Real easy to knock down out of the sky. And he was on the Ploesti raid, flew a lot of missions.

Years ago we offered to buy him a free ride on a B-24 for his birthday. He said 'Hell no I never ever want to be in one of those things again'.

[raprice]

Originally Posted by Patrick L.

There was an old saying, 'one a day in Tampa Bay'. My father said the B26 flew nice until an engine failed [ or was failed/practice] then they became hand full. If I remember correctly there were some changes made to make them more user friendly.

My wife had an older cousin who was a bombadier on a B-26. The stability problem seemed to be corrected by making the wings longer.
He told me that the crews called the B-26 the flying prostitute, because it had no visible means of support.
Rog

[caboose]

My wife's cousin was a Copilot on a B 24; he was killed during the first Ploesti raid. Remains yet to be identified. My father was a ball turret gunner on a B 17; killed in a bombing raid over Kassel, Germany. Buried at Margraten, the Netherlands. I was recently at a meeting of people whose fathers died in WW II. I mentioned that I had been up in a B 17, a B 25, and a C 47. The guy next to me finished his talk by saying, I have flown a B 17, B 24, B 25, B 29 (I lost count after that). While I was at the Memorial Day serve at Margraten, this guy emailed me a video of him flying Fifi
(B 29) around the statue of liberty.

[caboose]

PS I have a guard badge from Willow Run; don't know what vintage.

[1crosscut]

Neat piece of history. Is it just me or is there a guy with a big a$$ grin in the center cockpit window of the last plane shown during the backwards pan of the planes being built in the first segment?

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Originally Posted by raprice

My wife had an older cousin who was a bombadier on a B-26. The stability problem seemed to be corrected by making the wings longer.
He told me that the crews called the B-26 the flying prostitute, because it had no visible means of support.
Rog

Rog,
That last sentence is SO FUNNY -----If you fondle a prostitute, for FREE, is it called ASSAULT or ROBBERY
Bill W.