Long before any car carried the BMW logo, there were aircrafts and motorcycles.
- Karl Friedrich Rapp, an engineer, founded an engine company named Rapp Motoren Werke
on 28 Oct 1913. The first plant was in Schleissheimer Strasse 288 in Milbertshofen, Munich. Rapp worked as a
subcontractor to aircraft concern Gustav Otto Flugmaschinefabrick (later called Bayerische FlugZeugwerke).
During the World War I, the two companies were negotiated by Austrian Franz Josef Popp to supply V12 aircraft
engines to the Hapsburg empire. On 7 Mar 1916, Bayerische Motoren Werke GmbH was formed with the
additional finance from Camillo Castiglioni. BMW AG came on 13 Aug 1918.
- The first engine to bear the BMW name was the Type IIIa water-cooled six-cylinder aircraft engine. This was short
lived as the WWI ended with the Versailles Treaty forbidding Germany from building military aircrafts.
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