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Albert Kahn died on 8 December 1942 at the age of 73.
I posted a story on the blog about Kahn, builder of Detroit, and his role in the Packard plant:

https://56packardman.com/2017/01/24/gear-head-tuesday-albert-kahn-builder-of-detroit/

Hello Louis:

Nice write-up of Albert Kahn and thanks for the mention of the the Packard Proving Grounds. And yes the PPG is a popular wedding and corporate meeting site. In 2016 we hosted 142 rental events. The income stream from these rental events allows us to be self-sustaining and continue our work to totally restore this historic site.

If you do not mind, then I have a couple of comments on your blog. Technically speaking, when Packard left Detroit they sold the PPG to the Curtis-Wright Corp. as they wanted the engine plant at the far, northwest corner of the site. Then in 1961 C-W sold the property to Ford.

In your comments regarding the Willow Run Plant designed by Albert Kahn you mention that B-29 bombers were also assembled there. This is the first time I've heard of that. When they were producing the B-24s at a rate of one every hour I think it would be difficult to squeeze in another aircraft type.

Here is a link to a vintage video of the Willow Run story:
https://archive.org/details/74182StoryOfWillowRun

All the best.

I agree with Roger...no B29 aircraft were made at Willow Run. Boeing built them in four plants: near Seattle, Witcita, Marietta (GA) and one other that I am forgetting, but probably in So. Cal. Ford had their hands full cranking out B24 Liberators and B17s were still being made up until August 1945 in several locations. I never knew before that B29s saw no WW II action except in the Pacific...never in Europe. I also did not realize that North American Aviation was essentially a division of General Motors until after the close of the war. So, you might say GM built Mustangs (P51s) before Ford did.

After Kaiser-Frazier left Willow Run, didn't GM build Corvairs there? With Packard-powered P-51s and Spitfires (and some Lancasters, too), the Arsenal of Democracy was a pretty impressive effort we haven't seen since. Lots of War Bonds made it possible, another thing not recently seen.

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Wherever B-29s were built, one thing is for sure-and this is an unknown fact: some B-29 components and the machinery to make the planes were made in Detroit. The components and machines to make parts of the planes was manufactured at a company known as Progressive Welder Company. Who was Progressive Welder? The predecessor company to Creative Industries of Detroit-which, by the way-made numerous components and did engineering for Boeing and the military... all the way up to the B-2 stealth bomber.

Some of this information will be included in the new book on Creative Industries of Detroit. This book will be in stores as of February, 2017. Creative Industries, of course did a lot of work for Packard.

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This posting claims that Highland Park was Ford's first factory and implies it is the birthplace of the Model T, but if memory serves this old Detroiter (me) I believe the honor of the first Ford plant goes to Piquette Avenue, not Highland Park. The big plant in Highland Park only got going after the T was a hit.

The Ford Piquette Plant is now a museum and the Packard Club toured it a few years ago when the PAC National was held in Pontiac.

The article is definitely wrong about the 29 being built in Detroit. Boeing built them in Renton WA and Wichita, Martin in Omaha and Bell in GA. Below is an excerpt of what I wrote several years ago for the Geneseo Air Show program spotlighting the Curtiss Wright P40. It traces GM's ownership of North American and Curtiss.
"Orville Wright, the surviving Wright brother sold his interest of the Wright Co to a group of NY investors. This became The Wright Aeronautical Corporation, which lead in the development of the radial air-cooled engine. The Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corporation came out of WWI the largest American aircraft manufacturer employing approx 18,000 people in Buffalo and 3,000 in Hammondsport. The company went on to produce innovative seaplanes, military and racing aircraft, the D12 engine and propellers. Curtiss seaplanes won two consecutive Schneider Trophy Races in 1923 and 1925. A Curtiss R3C won the Pulitzer Trophy Race in October 1925 and thirteen day later LT Jimmy Doolittle won the Schneider in the same aircraft fitted with floats. The Rolls Royce Kestrel and Merlin engines were based on the D12.
The two companies merged in July 1929 under the direction of Clement M Keys who had set up a large aviation holding company called North American Aviation, which included the Sperry Gyroscope Company and Eastern Air Transport. William Boeing was starting a similar venture on the West Coast called United Aircraft and Transportation Corp, which included Boeing Aircraft, Pratt & Whitney, Hamilton Standard propellers and United Airlines.
C M Keys went bankrupt in 1933, and, according to Eddie Rickenbacker's 1967 autobiography, Rickenbacker engineered the sale of thirty percent of North American's stock to General Motors in February 1933. GM then acquired the Allison Engineering Co in 1934.
GM sold North American in 1947. In 1948 Curtiss shut down its aircraft production and sold the assets to North American. Several management books have been written about Curtiss' decline as weak management who were unsure of putting profits back into aviation research and aggressive stockholders who wanted large dividends. The stockholders won." Sound familiar?


Leeedy- Art-Craft Metals a builder of metal office furniture in Detroit, built horizontal stabilizers for the B17. Yankee Lady, the B17 based at Willow Run has Art Craft stabilizers

Thanks to those of you who corrected me about B-29s being produced at Willow Run. A few months ago, I did a series on Kaiser-Frazer on the blog. I picked up the B-29 error in some of the material I used in putting the Kaiser-Frazer stories together. When I wrote the post about Albert Kahn, I didn't vet myself on that. The red flag for me should have been the B-24 production at Willow Run. That should have triggered me to fact check the B-29 claim.

Leeedy, I welcome the news about the publication of your book on Creative Industries. It has been a long wait since I ordered two copies from Amazon several months ago.

The story of Wright, Curtiss, Allison, GM, Ford, Boeing, United, and others is interesting and thanks for sharing your brief summary. My brother works for Sikorsky Aircraft Co. another United Technologies company now owned by Lockheed Martin. Another ownership wrinkle in the story.

(o[]o)

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Hello and thanks for your interest... but Leeedy does not control sales or distribution. These are all matters controlled by the publisher. This is not a self-published book. By the way, if you ordered early, you will notice that you received a very deep discount in the purchase price (which means the author gets less).

And if you think a few months is a long wait... try waiting over 3 years and investing thousands of dollars and years of work... having people die while you are writing... and more. Some people were so advanced in age they had to be interviewed in hospital beds or in nursing homes. Others had to be sought out in obituary pages. Not to mention saving all this stuff since the 1950s. And... even after all of the years of work and editing, a few typos and minor errors in captions incredibly managed to sneak past several sets of eyes. But hopefully you will be more than satisfied with the end product. And you will see photos and read information never before seen anywhere in publication.

As for the companies you just mentioned, Creative Industries did work for all of them... and I do mean all of them. So unlike what many people think. Creative was not some little customizer shop in Detroit. It was a very big operation.

A bit late to the thread, but regarding B-29s and Willow Run, I have been following events at the remaining section of the plant which is being converted to a new home for the Yankee Air Museum. Apparently, the Willow Run plant was designed to be big enough to build the 29, then in development, but, rather than disrupt production, it was decided to continue with the 24 as it was adequate for the job in Europe.

As part of the Yankee Air Museum's Historical Presentation series, Joel Stone, Senior Curator at the Detroit Historical Society, will give a talk on Albert Kahn April 5th at 7:30PM. Event is free, but donations are welcome.