Over the Hump at Willow Run?

WPB's flint-hard, fact-minded Vice Chairman Charles E. Wilson made his first visit last week to the vast, pin-neat Willow Run bomber plant. After inspecting the mile-long assembly line, looking over production schedules, talking to production bosses, he gave out a confident statement. Said he: "The Willow Run plant is on the beam. . . . Willow Run will be in full production, turning out 500 planes a month, by the time the next snow flies."

Next day it snowed in Detroit. Once again the joke was on Willow Run.

But this might very well be the last laugh at Willow Run's expense; no longer may aviation experts be able to wisecrack: "Willit Run?" Eleven months after the first bomber was put together, Willow Run finally seemed to be really under way.

Cold production figures were there to prove it. Ford executives, who in the months of dead hopes had quietly borne their lumps from the Army, the old-line aviation companies and the public, were bursting to make their brave new figures public. They thought the figures might give the U.S. a lift and the Axis a good scare. The Army said no, flatly; but U.S. citizens could take heart anyway. The news from Willow Run is good.

Most significant fact: starting in January, monthly production had increased in almost geometric progression. Some day Willow Run may yet achieve the miracle of a bomber an hour.

Policy Change. Ford executives had plenty of excuses (not all of them good) for their late start. Since production was started, the Army has made 575 master changes in B-24 design, but this has happened in varying degree to all other airplane makers. To achieve the present production, Henry Ford himself was forced to change a basic policy. When Willow Run was built, Ford mistakenly vetoed all Army suggestions that some parts for the Liberators be produced elsewhere. Now the sub-assemblies are being farmed out in the Detroit area.

This change may help solve one of Willow Run's fundamental troubles: manpower, which is linked to the lack of housing. And the housing lack is Ford's fault--he refused to permit erection of housing near the plant. Most workers must still drive the 26 miles out from Detroit. And at present the payroll at Willow Run numbers 40,066 (38% are women).

In El Paso last week, Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson announced that production of heavy bombers exceeded 500 a month for the first time last month. Unless Charley Wilson's optimism over Willow Run is misplaced, Bob Patterson may have to double his figure before the year is over.

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