Departure
93%
vs 95% ▼ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Willow Run Airport (KYIP) is a busy general aviation, cargo and corporate field on the eastern edge of Ypsilanti, Michigan, about eight miles west of Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Built during the Second World War as the vast Ford-Lindbergh bomber plant that produced the B-24 Liberator, it now hosts cargo carriers, corporate traffic and the Michigan Flight Museum, all under a Class D tower with an ILS-equipped main runway.
Willow Run Airport lies in Van Buren and Ypsilanti Charter Townships near Ypsilanti, Michigan, and is owned by Wayne County and operated by the Wayne County Airport Authority, which also runs Detroit Metropolitan Airport. It serves cargo, corporate and general aviation traffic rather than scheduled airline passengers, and is notable for its wartime origins as one of the largest aircraft manufacturing plants in history. For a simulator pilot it offers a long ILS runway, a genuine Class D control zone tucked under Detroit's Class B airspace, and a strong sense of aviation history through the on-field Michigan Flight Museum.
The airport sits within Class D airspace that underlies the Detroit Class B airspace shelf, close to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) roughly eight miles to the east. It occupies a large site of around 2,600 acres straddling Wayne and Washtenaw counties, north of Interstate 94 and west of Beck Road, on the eastern edge of Ypsilanti.
Willow Run has four physical runway pairs. Runway 05/23 is 7,536 feet long, hard-surfaced, lit and equipped with an ILS, making it the primary instrument runway. Runway 09/27 is a hard-surfaced, lit runway with a length of 6,706 feet from the 09 threshold and 7,280 feet from the 27 threshold. Runway 14/32 is hard-surfaced and lit, 6,290 feet from the 14 threshold and 6,126 feet from the 32 threshold. A parallel shorter strip, runway 05L/23R, is 5,991 feet long, hard-surfaced and lit. The field elevation is 705 feet.
Willow Run is served by Detroit Approach/Departure on 118.95 MHz, with ATIS on 127.425 MHz and ASOS on 132.35 MHz. Ground movements are handled on 121.75 MHz and the tower operates on 125.275 MHz. The primary runway, 05/23, is equipped with an ILS for instrument approaches.
The airport operates under a 24-hour FAA control tower, and pilots should expect full read-back of runway assignments and hold-short instructions with callsign, as is standard for Class D operations here. Detroit Approach provides IFR longitudinal separation or a minimum of 500 feet vertical separation to VFR traffic practising instrument approaches within its airspace. Pilots should be alert to a former, closed runway lying just north of runway 05, marked with a series of X's, which presents a wrong-surface risk during approach and landing.
The airport is readily identified by its position just north of Interstate 94 and west of Beck Road on the eastern fringe of Ypsilanti, with Detroit Metropolitan Airport visible to the east as a useful reference point when inbound from that direction. On the field itself, the Michigan Flight Museum occupies one of the historic hangars and its collection of vintage aircraft can serve as a visual cue when taxiing or overflying the apron areas.
Willow Run was built in 1941 by Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh as what was then the world's largest bomber manufacturing facility, opening in 1942 and becoming synonymous with the American wartime industrial effort that helped secure Allied victory. The plant produced B-24 Liberator bombers in vast numbers during the war. After the conflict the site was converted for passenger use, and in 1947 the University of Michigan purchased the airport. In 1966 it was converted into a cargo, executive and general aviation airport, and in 1977 the University of Michigan sold it to Wayne County, which has operated it alongside Detroit Metropolitan Airport ever since.
Willow Run today functions as a major reliever airport for cargo, corporate and general aviation traffic, handling large volumes of air freight each year and hosting a flying school among its tenants. Kalitta Air, the worldwide cargo carrier, is headquartered at the field, and the Michigan Flight Museum operates from one of the airport's hangars, preserving a substantial collection of vintage aircraft. The airport is categorised by the FAA as a national reliever facility within the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems.