Museum planned to honor B-24, plant

Museum planned to honor B-24, plant

A group of local history and flying buffs have begun their own version of the famed “Confederate Air Force” with the aim of building a museum to honor the Willow Run Bomber Plant and its star product, the B-24 Liberator bomber.

Dennis Norton, a florist and self-proclaimed history buff, told the Ypsilanti City Council on Monday the “Yankee Air Force, which will be based at Willow Run, also plans to build a collection of antique war planes “second to none” and buy and refurbish a B-24.

The Confederate Air Force operates an air musuem in Texas which features a large number of working combat planes from the Second World War.

Norton said the Yankee Air Force was formed by five area residents who wanted to honor the contribution Willow Run made to the war effort from 1941 to 1945 and create an attraction for the area.

Norton said the group has already received help from the General Motors Corp., which now owns the former bomber plant, the Ford Motor Co., which built the plant for the government, and the Henry Ford Museum.

The group is planning a free open house from noon to 8 p.m. Sunday at a Butler Aviation hanger at Willow Run Airport.

The open house will feature a display of antique aircraft and combat planes, a B-24 photo display, and the film, “The Story of Willow Run.”

The Yankee Air Force is still in the initial stages of its membership drive, Norton said. Anyone who joins by Dec. 31 will be granted “charter member” status.

A general membership meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Detroit Institute of Aeronautics on the southwest side of Willow Run Airport near the former Federal Aviation Administration building.