Willow Run Airport 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. Overview Willow Run Airport covers and has two runways, a continuously staffed FAA control tower, and US Customs operations. It is one of two facilities operated by the Wayne County Airport Authority, the other being Detroit Metropolitan Airport, which replaced Willow Run as the major commercial airport for the region starting in 1958. Worldwide cargo airlines Kalitta Charters and National Airlines are based at Willow Run Airport. History Willow Run Airport was named for a small stream that meandered through pastureland and woods until the late 1930s. Automobile pioneer Henry Ford bought the property that became the airport's runways and taxiways in 1931, and used it for almost a decade as farmland for a "social engineering" experiment that brought inner-city boys to Willow Run Farm to learn about nature, farming tasks, and the rural way of life. The residents at the Willow Run farms planted, tended, and harvested crops as well as running a maple syrup operation, and sold their products at the farm market on the property. In the process, the boys learned self-discipline and the values of hard work, and benefited from the fresh air that they had not been able to experience while growing up in congested cities. World War II See the Willow Run article for further details of manufacturing at the site. The coming of World War II to Europe and the Fall of France in 1940 alarmed many in the United States,