A pictoral history of Willow Run - a relative unknown location that became the world's most famous bomber factory during World War II.

In May 1940, Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt called for the production of 50,000 military airplanes. He then drafted the president of General Motors, William Knudsen, to mobilize industry in the United States. The automotive companies were called upon to produce a massive fleet of bombers, as well as tanks, trucks, guns, and engines. By the Willow Run, a sleepy little creek near Ypsilanti, Michigan, Ford Motor Company built the world's most famous bomber factory, which was the ultimate manifestation of the automotive industry's role in building armaments during World War II. By the spring of 1944, Willow Run was producing a four-engine B-24 bomber each hour on an assembly line.

New York State was a center of industry during World War II. New York aviation companies designed many of the greatest combat aircraft of the era, and bustling armies of women and men helped quickly churn them out by the thousands. More than one fourth of all US warplanes came from New York drawing boards during the war. These planes saw combat service everywhere, holding the line in the deserts of North Africa and flying from aircraft carriers plying the vast Pacific Ocean. Others operated over the frozen tundra of Alaska and Siberia. New York aircraft flew tons of fuel, ammunition, and supplies over the treacherous Himalayan Mountains into China, relentlessly hounded enemy submarines and ships, and battered Axis strongholds all the way to victory.

Known for more "first flights" and record flights than any other place, Edwards Air Force Base is legendary. Centered around an ancient dry lakebed in the Mojave Desert 90 miles north of Los Angeles, activity at Edwards has sharpened the cutting edge of aviation and aerospace since the 1940s. The complex is a strategic flight test, research, and development center for the U.S. Air Force, NASA, and civilian contractors. Since the 1950s, almost every U.S. military aircraft has been partially tested here. The skies above Edwards have been the scene of remarkable achievements, including Chuck Yeager's world-famous breaking of the sound barrier in 1947. The base was first established near the small town of Muroc in 1933 and became renowned for its giant runways painted onto the flat, dry lakebed. Speed and altitude records were commonplace at Edwards during the 1950s. Suborbital space flights began there in the 1960s. In the 1970s it was the primary testing site for the space shuttle program. Dramatic aerospace research continues today at Edwards, America's proving ground for the future of high tech aviation.

Area 51, a top secret military installation for testing unacknowledged, or black, projects, lies in a desert valley northwest of Las Vegas. During the Cold War, CIA and Air Force officials chose this remote location to shield such efforts from foreign spies and US citizens. Although the base has been known by many names—Paradise Ranch, Watertown, and Dreamland, among others—the designation Area 51 has taken root most deeply in the public imagination. Since 1955, it has grown from a temporary camp into a national test facility supporting nearly 2,000 military and civilian workers and dozens of projects, including aircraft capable of cruising at Mach 3 and stealth airplanes that are virtually invisible to radar. Although secrecy surrounding Area 51 spawned rumors of UFOs and reverse-engineered alien spacecraft, declassified photographs provide a rare glimpse into the true nature of America's most famous secret base.

Pan American World Airways could be considered a corporate Cinderella--a rags-to-riches-and-back-again phenomenon.

From its founding in 1927 and its relatively obscure inauguration as a mail carrier on a 90-mile mail run from Florida's Key West to Cuba, Pan Am's route system grew to span the globe. The company that would eventually become famous for its blue-and-white-world logo grew into a conglomerate of hotels, airlines, business jets, real estate, a helicopter service, and even a guided missiles range division. But financial problems plagued Pan Am in its last two decades, and in 1991, Pan American World Airways ceased flying after 64 years of service. The story of Pan Am is as much the story of president Juan T. Trippe as it is an account of airplanes, pilots, flight attendants, and glamorous destinations. As the company moved throughout the world building airfields from jungles, crossing oceans, and forcing the development of new airplanes, it was Trippe's airline and his vision. A global pioneer, Pan Am was the first airline to use radio communications, to employ cabin attendants and serve meals aloft, and to complete an around-the-world flight. The company's achievements were legendary, but its failures, tragedies, and disasters were also part of a complex corporate life.

Dallas Love Field Airport, established in 1917 as an Army flight training field, was the site of the first commercial aviation flights in the state of Texas. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the airport’s reputation as one of the nation’s best attracted many well-known aviators of the day to take advantage of its excellent facilities and services. At one time the 10th busiest airport in the world, Love Field has been the headquarters of two major airlines (one of which is now the airport’s largest tenant) and has a strong reputation for exceptional leadership and passenger satisfaction while processing more passengers per gate than any airport in the country. The repeal of a legislative amendment limiting nonstop flights at the airport resulted in a 100 percent increase in passenger traffic from 2010 to 2019 and significantly impacted the airport’s relationship to the community.