Prior to building automobiles, BMW used to manufacture engines for airplanes and shortly after, motorcycles? Since its inception in 1916, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG was one of the most important makers of aircraft engines. BMW’s first significant engine was the Illa inline-six liquid-cooled engine built in 1918, famous for its high-altitude performance.
After World War I, by the Versailles Armistice Treaty, BMW was forced to cease aircraft engine production and started focusing on the motorcycles. Some of the most successful aircraft engines were the BMW 132 and BMW 801 air-cooled radial engines, and the pioneering BMW 003 axial-flow turbojet, which powered the tiny, 1944-45-era jet-powered “emergency fighter”, the Heinkel He 162 Salamander, and was tested in the A-1b version of the world’s first jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262.
Some people also say that the BMW roundel portrays the movement of an airplane propeller to signify the white blades cutting through the blue sky, but we’ll leave this subject for another time.
We hope you enjoy our short series of BMW History and we will continue next time with…..well, it’s a surprise, so stay tuned!
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This is indeed a very interesting articles.. Great.. keep sharing dude…
I guess having ‘motor” as your middle name, must mean you make all sorts of propulsion.
BMW were still making jet enjins a few years back together with Rolls Royce. Their enjins went onto the Gulfstream V, the Global Express and the Boeing 717.
Why they pulled out of the program, I don’t know.
Nice to think tho, that BMW pioneered the jet enjin. If my memory servers me correctly, Rolls Royce bought the technology from BMW after WW2. Nice to know that BMW and RR goes back so far.
The BMW emblem is those propellers in the sky
On Wikipedia it says the 003 runs on 87 octane petrol.
@Giom: Hi Giom. Was BMW forced to sell the jet technology at the end of the war? It’s actually surprising because (afaik) both russia and britain had stolen the technology or plans of the 262’s engines during their development so…. why buy it?
@Doug:
Yes I believe the Allies did take the blueprints.
I also think the Japanese studied pictures and diagrams of the 003 while making their own jet engine.
@Doug: You’re probably right, they just took it. It would be interesting to learn exactly what happend to BMW after the war. I remember some, but forgot most.