Comparison Chart of WW2 Bomber Aircraft Accepted from the Boeing B-17 Plant 2 and the Willow Run B-24 Liberator Bombers Production Plant.

Charles Sorenson's Willow Run B-24 Liberator Bomber Production vs. Boeing Seattle B-17 Flying Fortress Bomber Production.

Comparison of aircraft accepted from Boeing Plant 2 in Seattle, Washington and the Willow Run B-24 Liberator bomber plant near Detroit, Michigan in WW2 through the end of 1944.  By that time, project schedules were being cut back.  Willow Run was winding down, and the Boeing Plant 2 had begun to convert to the B-29.  Note that both plants hit their peak production in the same month, March 1944.  Each Square on the chart represents one month of business production.  The vertical scale of the chart represents the number of aircraft produced during that month. 

Sources:  The Boeing Archives.  The Research Center, Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, and Warren B. Kidder, Willow Run: Colossus of American industry, KFT, Lansing, MI, 1995.

Further in the text, in March of 1944, the Willow Run Plant hit it's peak production of 462 aircraft at an average of 63 minutes per plane.  The text goes on to say that "If needed for the war, output at Willow Run was projected at 900 planes per month."

Now, think about that!  At Willow Runs peak production, it was running at slightly over one half of the plants total capability.  Also, since March of 1944 the monthly production dropped showing our confidence in winning the war a year before it's actual end.  This goes along with another exhibit on this site called Japanese Propaganda Art, where the Japanese commanders said all of this propaganda art should be destroyed, somewhere about the same time.  Also, even at Willow Runs peak production, our confidence of winning the war was very high seeing that the peak production was only half of the aircraft plants maximum production capability.  It would be interesting to see America's total aircraft production charts for the same period.   C. Jeff Dyrek, Webmaster.