It was founded by Karl Friedrich Rapp and Gustav Otto after the merger of two manufacturers of airplane engines in the city of Munich: a Rapp-Motorenwerke and Gustav Otto Flugmaschinfabrik. The Rapp-engine works themselves began in 1913 at Munich, started to build aircraft engines for Austria in anticipation of World War I. Rapp-Motorenwerke's top customer was Franz Josef Popp, general inspector of Emperor Franz Josef's army. Popp hired Max Friz, an aircraft engine designer from Austro-Daimler; together in Munich they established Bayerische Motoren Werke based on the engineering ideas of Rapp.
The First World War brought rapid growth to the company, which soon built large facilities to the east of the former airfield of Oberwiesenfeld in Munich. Until 1918, supplied engines for military aircraft. However the twist in the tale came in with the Treaty of Versailles, signed after the World War I, when Germany was banned to manufacture aircraft engines for five years. BMW then began to provide four-cylinder engines for trucks and boats.
The company's interests in motorcycle manufacture developed rapidly in the early 1920s. The first model, the R32, consisted of a flat twin engine and drive shaft housed in a double-tube frame, with valves in an inverted arrangement to keep the oil clean. Designed by engineer Max Fritz, bike debuted in the salons of Paris and Berlin. This model had the basic characteristics of future bike brand: of 2 cylinder boxer engine and transmission secondary axle card.
Franz-Josef Popp was the first Director General and CEO of BMW.
Key Dates:
1917: Rapp's original business leads to the formation of Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, under the direction of Franz Josef Popp and Max Friz.
1918: First BMW aircraft engine is built.
1929: First BMW car is built.
Trivia: The nomenclature
BMW uses 3 numeric digits followed by one or two letters to identify their models. The first number is the number of cars. The next two numbers represent the engine displacement in liters multiplied by 10. The letters mean: d = diesel, petrol = i; x = all wheel drive, long wheel base l = c = par. For example, the model 760il car is a series of 7, moved to the 6.0l engine with petrol.
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