Willow Run (YIP) "having difficulity"

Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe

Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe

Touchdown! Greaser!
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http://www.detnews.com/article/20090915/BIZ/909150322/1001

"Willow Run airport is facing severe financial problems and officials are considering a number of cost-saving options, from leasing the facility to possibly closing it. "

http://www.willowrunairport.com/information/history.asp

"Willow Run Airport has a rich history, dating back to 1941 when Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh built the world's largest bomber facility at the airport.

During World War II, almost 8,700 B-24 "Liberator" bombers were built at Willow Run. During its peak production, the plant employed 42,000 people including "Rosie the Riviter." "
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
http://www.detnews.com/article/20090915/BIZ/909150322/1001

"Willow Run airport is facing severe financial problems and officials are considering a number of cost-saving options, from leasing the facility to possibly closing it. "

http://www.willowrunairport.com/information/history.asp

"Willow Run Airport has a rich history, dating back to 1941 when Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh built the world's largest bomber facility at the airport.

During World War II, almost 8,700 B-24 "Liberator" bombers were built at Willow Run. During its peak production, the plant employed 42,000 people including "Rosie the Riviter." "
Click to expand...

I hope they manage to keep it going, it would be a shame to lose it. I gotta wonder though, why does it cost almost 12 million dollars to run a satellite airport? That's enough to pay for over 200 full time employees and still have something left over to cover equipment.

I wonder what the budget is for my airport. I think I'll try to find out.
 
I doubt it will be the last thing to go. Michigan is now one of the poorest states, and has been referred to as the "Mississippi of the North". My own home is not so far behind.
 
Airports are like institutional excellence. Difficult to build, hard to maintain, and all to easily lost.
 
I hate to hear that. Willow Run is the first thing I remember inspiring me to take to the air. It does take a lot of money to keep an airport going. Running it is expensive enough, but add in the infrastructure maintenance and it really gets expensive.
 
Yup, I hope we don't lose this one too. If they do close it, I wonder where they'll relocate the FSDO?

It's scary how quickly development can swallow up what's left of a closed field. For some reason the Detroit sectional still shows Berz-Macomb as a circle with an X. The legend says, abandoned airfield with landmark value, but I can't even find any trace of it on Google Earth (June '07 photo).

It's sad to think, my first CFI took me in there as a student pilot in '02, then they closed the next year. Sniff.
 
Michigan is far worse than Mississippi financially... It has the income of a banana republic and a democrat governor with a spend-tax-spend brain who insists we MUST increase social giveaways - and the cause of that gap is that those of us who work 12 hours a day 7 days a week aren't paying enough taxes to her - us damn greedy rich folks with AIRPLANES...

denny-o
 
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