DETROIT (AP) — An aviation museum announced Monday it has signed an agreement to buy a 144,000-square-foot slice of the Michigan factory where the original Rosie the Riveter worked during World War II.
 
The Yankee Air Museum, through the Save the Willow Run Bomber Plant campaign, raised close to $8 million by the May 1 deadline set by the factory’s owner, the Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response Trust. The trust took over sites around the U.S. left behind in General Motors’ bankruptcy.
 
Organizers want to convert the factory — where Rose Will Monroe and other workers built B-24 bombers — into the new home of the Yankee Air Museum, dedicated to aviation and all the other Rosies who toiled at similar U.S. plants to aid the war effort.
 
“We are now in a pre-closing inspection period,” the museum said in a statement Monday. “During inspection, we are trying to identify and address any issues that could complicate making a new home for the Yankee Air Museum in the bomber plant.”
 
Yankee Air Museum signs purchase deal for Rosie’s old plant