Published: 13:25 EDT, 29 July 2013 | Updated: 13:58 EDT, 29 July 2013

The Detroit-area factory where 'Rosie the Riveter' showed that a woman could do a 'man's work' by building World War II-era bombers, making her an enduring symbol of American female empowerment, will be demolished if money can't be found to save it. The Willow Run Bomber Plant, a 332-acre former Ford Motor Company factory west of Detroit that churned out nearly 9,000 B-24 Liberator bombers during World War II, is slated to be torn down unless a group can raise $3.5 million by Thursday to convert at least some of the structure into a new, expanded home for the nearby Yankee Air Museum. 'The younger generation needs to know what people went through and be able to go and see what they did and how they did it for our country,' Larry Doe, a 70-year-old Ypsilanti Township resident who has given to the cause, said recently before joining other donors for a trip on a B-17.

War effort: Ford Motor Company switched from making cars to planes and produced one an hour - nearly 9,000 B-24 Liberator bombers in all - at the Willow Run factory

Yes, we can: (left) 'Rosie the Riveter' aka Rosie Monroe was introduced as the poster girl for women joining the work force during World War II and (right) the real Rose Will Monroe, who died in 1997

Break time: Men and women workers sit together to eat their home-packed lunches on some steps at the Willow Run bomber plant

Although women performed what had been male-dominated roles in plants all over the country during the war, it was a Willow Run worker - one of an untold number of women in its 40,000-person workforce - who caught the eye of Hollywood producers casting a 'riveter' for a government film about the war effort at home. Rose Will Monroe, a Kentucky native who moved to Michigan during the war, starred as herself in the film and became one of the best-known figures of that era. She represented the thousands of Rosies who took factory jobs making munitions, weaponry and other things while the nation's men were off fighting in Europe and the Pacific.

Factory girls: Workers at the Willow Run bomber plant operated machines, such as the Rockwell hardness tester seen in this picture

War effort: Male and female workers riveting a center wing section for a B-24E Liberator bomber in the horizontal position at Ford's big Willow Run plant

Massive scale: Fuselage sections for B-24E Liberator bombers being completed before going to one of the two final assembly lines of Ford's Willow Run plant

Although many Rosies were let go once the war was over and the soldiers returned home, they had shown that women were capable of doing jobs that had traditionally been done by only men. An illustrated poster of a determined-looking Rosie the Riveter rolling up her sleeve with the slogan, 'We can do it!,' became an iconic symbol of female empowerment for American women. The Willow Run factory went back to making automobiles after the war ended, and it did so for more than a half-century under the General Motors name before closing for good in 2010. Now, Doe and other donors are hoping to save at least some of the massive structure to convert it into the new home of the Yankee Air Museum. The museum's original headquarters burned down in 2004, and it is currently housed at Willow Run Airport in Van Buren Township, which is near Ypsilanti Township, where the plant is located.

War-time workers: These 1940s color photos show men from the Willow Run factory inspecting the landing wheels of transport planes

Liberation: Assembly lines where many female workers made these B-24E Liberator bombers at Ford's big Willow Run plant. Guns and wing tips have not yet been added to the planes in the foreground

Completed: New B-24E Liberator bombers made by workers at Ford's Willow Run plant, are rolled from the hangars for test flights

Worker's cottage: These typical homes near the Willow Run bomber plant would have housed many of the factory's workers

'We now have the opportunity to actually take a piece of this plant. It's due to be demolished over the next two or three years,' said Dennis Norton, president of the Michigan Aerospace Foundation.

'There's no further use for it. It's too big. It's too old to be used in modern-day manufacturing.' Organizers of the 'Save the Willow Run Bomber Plant' campaign say they need $8 million to fund their 'separation' plan. They want to acquire part of the five-million-square-foot plant, secure it and re-establish utility services such as water, gas and electric. They have raised $4.5 million of what they need and are hoping to entice major donors to come forward with six- and seven-figure commitments. Detroit's historic bankruptcy filing two weeks ago isn't expected to have any effect on fundraising, said Dan Pierce, a spokesman for the effort. 'We have not heard this from any prospective donors and don't think we will,' he said.

A woman's work: These Willow Run factory workers who labored for the war-time effort install one of the four motors on a transport plane

Wing it: An overseer checks the wing structure of a plane with blueprints, while engineers determine next steps to be taken before the wings leave the assembly line

Meticulous: A young employee at the Willow Run plant uses a tiny flashlight to discover any internal defects in metal tubing used in the construction of bombers

Expertise: An experienced worker at the Willow Run bomber plant operates a cold heading machine making hundreds of rivets a minute from aluminum alloy wire

Closed: A B-17G 'Yankee Lady' is shown in front of the old Willow Run Bomber Plant that produced nearly 9,000 B-24 Liberator bombers to help win the war in Europe. The factory closed for good in 2010 and is slated for demolition

Yankee Air Museum backers are hoping to tap into some of that patented Rosie resolve in their efforts to transform Willow Run. The hulking facility currently is in the hands of the Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response Trust, which took over sites around the country left behind in the bankruptcy of GM. Much of the plant has fallen into disrepair, including the portion the Yankee Air Museum is eyeing. The factory floor is littered with debris that sits among rusted-out and busted-up equipment once used to make transmissions. Norton and his colleagues hope to change that soon. The millions left to raise represents 'a significant amount of money,' he said. 'However, if we didn't think we could do it, we wouldn't have started it in the first place.'

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