Willow Run

Willow Run Transmission (also called Ypsilanti Transmission Operations, YTO) was a General Motors factory in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan. Acquired by GM in 1953, it produced Hydramatic and other automatic transmissions for use in vehicles built by General Motors and other automakers. The factory first opened in 1941 as the Ford Willow Run facility, which built B-24 Liberator bombers during World War II, and its original building (still preserved within the fabric of the GM Powertrain plant) was designed by noted architect Albert Kahn. Following the war, the bomber plant was sold as surplus property to the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation, a partnership of construction and shipbuilding magnate Henry J. Kaiser and Graham-Paige executive Joseph W. Frazer. From 1947 to 1953, Willow Run built Kaiser and Frazer cars for Kaiser-Frazer and its successor Kaiser Motors. Kaiser also produced cargo planes during the Korean War at Willow Run under license from Fairchild Aircraft, including the C-119 Flying Boxcar.

The American Center for Mobility (ACM) is a 500-acre (200 ha) vehicular automation research center and federally designated automated vehicle proving ground located in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan.

Willow Run Assembly was a General Motors automobile factory near Ypsilanti, Michigan, located at 2625 Tyler Road, in the Willow Run manufacturing complex. Willow Run Assembly consisted of an assembly plant of 2.3 million square feet, another building that was known in later years as "Willow Run Company Vehicle Operations", covering 23,000 square feet on 22 acres of land, and perhaps other parcels. Willow Run Assembly was to the south of the former Willow Run Transmission, the site of the bomber plant built by Ford in 1941.Production of automobiles began at Willow Run in 1959 with the Chevrolet Corvair; Willow Run also built the rear-wheel-drive General Motors (RWD) Chevrolet Nova (1962-1979), Pontiac Ventura, Pontiac Phoenix, Oldsmobile Omega, Buick Apollo, and Buick Skylark, the front-wheel-drive, the X-cars Oldsmobile Omega, and Buick Skylark (1980-1985), the front-wheel-drive H body Oldsmobile 88 and Pontiac Bonneville, and the B-body Chevrolet Caprice sedan and wagon, Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser wagon, and the Buick Roadmaster Estate wagon. The Chevrolet Corvair was assembled at Willow Run during the car's entire 10-year production run. On May 14, 1969, the media was invited to Willow Run as the last Corvair came down the line; a departure from GM's policy of not permitting reporters to visit their manufacturing facilities. (this should all be re-written for more accuracy.) In 1968, General Motors began reorganizing its body and assembly operations into the GM Assembly Division (GMAD). GMAD required 16 years to completely absorb Fisher Body's operations, and Fisher would manufacture bodies at Willow Run until the 1970s. Assembly operations at Willow Run ended in July 1993 after reduced demand for the full-size B-bodies. Operations were transferred to the Arlington Assembly Plant in Texas. What was the main plant at Willow Run Assembly had by 2010 become a giant warehouse, the "Willow Run Business Center", part of which was leased to GM for use as a parts distribution facility.Willow Run Company Vehicle Operations became part of the abandoned GM properties managed by the RACER Trust in March 2011; in April 2013, RACER sold the Company Vehicle Operations facility to International Turbine Industries, an engine maintenance and repair company headquartered across Tyler Road from the former assembly plant.

Ameristar Charters Flight 9363 was an air charter flight from Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Michigan to Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, which experienced a rejected takeoff and runway excursion on March 8, 2017 as the result of a jammed elevator; the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 operating the flight was substantially damaged, but only one injury and no fatalities occurred to the 116 crew and passengers on board.

Willow Run Airport (IATA: YIP, ICAO: KYIP, FAA LID: YIP) is an airport in Van Buren Charter Township and Ypsilanti Township, near Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States, that serves freight, corporate, and general aviation. Due to its very close proximity to Detroit Metropolitan Airport, no major airlines schedule passenger flights to or from Willow Run. It is included in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021, in which it is categorized as a national reliever airport facility.Opened in 1942, "Willow Run" was synonymous with the American industrial effort that contributed so much to Allied victory in World War II. Operated by the Ford Motor Company, the Willow Run manufacturing plant produced a total of 8,685 B-24 Liberator heavy bombers, completed and in kit form, before closure in April 1945; Willow Run produced more Liberators than either plant owned by the plane's designer, Consolidated Aircraft. Today the Yankee Air Museum, located in one of the airport's hangars, has a large collection of vintage aircraft.

Willow Run High School was a public high school in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan. It was the high school of the Willow Run School District prior to the 2013 merger with the Ypsilanti Community Schools (YCS). The "Flyers" were the school mascot.After the merger, Ypsilanti Community High School, located in the former Ypsilanti High School building, became the consolidated comprehensive high school for the new YCS district.The Willow Run building now houses the Character and Restorative Education (CARE) program of YCS.

Rawsonville is an unincorporated community on the boundary of Washtenaw and Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The historic community of Rawsonville lies mostly under Belleville Lake, which is an artificial reservoir created in 1925 when the Eastern Michigan Edison Company built the French Landing Dam and Powerhouse along the Huron River.Rawsonville was dedicated as a Michigan State Historic Site on October 27, 1983.

The Ford Lake Dam (originally known as the Rawsonville Dam and sometimes referred to as the Hydro Dam) is an earthen, multi-arch hydroelectric gravity dam and powerhouse crossing the Huron River in Ypsilanti Charter Township in Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The dam was constructed in 1931–1932 and created the Ford Lake reservoir at 975 acres (395 ha).The Ford Lake Dam is 6.5 miles (10.5 km) downstream from the Peninsular Paper Dam and 7.9 miles (12.7 km) upstream from the French Landing Dam and Powerhouse. The dam is approximately 36 miles (58 km) from the Huron River's mouth at Lake Erie.The dam and powerhouse were commissioned by Henry Ford in order to supply electricity to the nearby Ypsilanti Ford Motor Plant. In 1969, the dam and surrounding land area were given to the city of Ypsilanti and surrounding township. The township took full ownership in 1990 and maintains control of the facility. The dam has a maximum spillway capacity of 28,000 cubic feet per second (793 m³/s). The south embankment of the dam contains an emergency fuse plug spillway. The area surrounding the dam's output is organized into two parks operated by the township. The North Hydro Park is part of the Border-to-Border Trail. Along with the adjacent, undeveloped South Hydro Park, the area is popular for shore fishermen and canoeing/kayaking along the Huron River to Belleville Lake.

Ford Lake is a fresh water artificial reservoir located in Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The lake was created from the construction of Ford Lake Dam (originally known as Rawsonville Dam) along the Huron River in the early 1930s. The lake is named after business magnate Henry Ford. The lake covers an area of 975 acres (395 ha) and has a maximum depth of 30 feet (9.1 m) near the eastern end. The lake continues the flow of the Huron River, beginning approximately at the Interstate 94 bridge crossing in the city of Ypsilanti and ends at Ford Lake Dam along Bridge Road in Ypsilanti Township. A short distance after the Ford Lake Dam, the Huron River continues into Belleville Lake, which itself is a reservoir created by the French Landing Dam and Powerhouse.

Ypsilanti Charter Township is a charter township of Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 53,362 at the 2010 census. The city of Ypsilanti is mostly surrounded by the township, but the two are administered autonomously.

The Michigan Flight Museum, formerly known as the Yankee Air Museum, is an aviation museum located at Willow Run Airport in Van Buren Township, Michigan. The museum has a small fleet of flying aircraft and a collection of static display aircraft outdoors.