YPSILANTI, MI — The Yankee Air Museum on Monday evening announced a $6 million campaign to purchase and undertake necessary separation and renovation costs for the area of the former Willow Run Powertrain Plant that manufactured B-24 Liberator bombers during World War II. If successful, the Yankee Air Museum eventually will move from its current location on the east side of Willow Run Airport to the former bomber plant, which is adjacent to the airport’s western boundary, said Dennis Norton, the founder and first president of Yankee Air Museum and president of the Michigan Aerospace Foundation.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for the Yankee Air Museum, its members, supporters and the community as a whole to establish a new home in the building that was at the core of our Arsenal of Democracy,” Mr. Norton said. “To relocate where men and women worked around the clock to produce the aircraft that helped preserve our nation’s freedom will bring history to life in a unique and powerful way. I am grateful to the RACER Trust for providing us with this opportunity and for supporting our mission.”
Mr. Norton presented the Yankee Air Museum’s plans to the Charter Township of Ypsilanti Board of Trustees on Monday evening.
The Yankee Air Museum has until August 1, 2013, to secure the needed funding, a deadline mutually agreed-upon by Yankee Air Museum and the building’s owner, the RACER Trust. The Yankee Air Museum will not be required to execute a binding purchase agreement unless the funds are secured by August 1.
The bomber plant is roughly 175,000 square feet of the nearly 5-million-square-foot Willow Run Powertrain Plant facility, which General Motors closed in 2010. The RACER Trust took ownership of the property in 2011 and has been seeking a buyer who will invest in new, jobs-producing redevelopment of the site.
The Yankee Air Museum would purchase a total of 840,000 square feet — or about 19.3 acres — from RACER. The remaining space would include parking for 700 vehicles.
The Yankee Air Museum, founded in 1981, is a private, non-profit museum and educational resource dedicated to the aviation history of southeastern Michigan. It sponsors the annual “Thunder Over Michigan” air show at Willow Run.
The Museum currently is housed in a 47,000-square-foot facility that was dedicated in October 2010. This facility replaced the original Yankee Air Museum headquarters, which was destroyed by fire in 2004.
Yankee Air Museum Begins $6 Million Campaign to Make Its Home in the Former B-24 Bomber Facility at Willow Run