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Fascinatingly BMW started life as a manufacturer of aircraft engines. In fact after the second World War ended the allies imposed a 3 year manufacturing ban on BMW for the highly effective aircraft engines and rockets they churned out in that war. 
BMW History
Little wonder that it all started with a Bavarian aircraft engineer named Karl Friedrich Rapp who founded Rapp Motoren Werke in Munich and started building aircraft engines on contract.
Three years later in 1916 Rapp sold the company to two Austrians; Franz Josef Popp and Max Friz. The company merged with another one and was soon renamed Bayersiche Motoren Werke or Bavarian Motor Works (BMW) a name that is retained to this day and has come to be associated with solid well-built luxury vehicles.
The first time BMW turned away from aircraft engines was to manufacture motorcycles in 1923 and its’ maiden R 32 was a 2-cylinder 494cc motorcycle that could reach the astonishing speed (in those days) of 95 km/h. The first car to roll off a BMW production line was the Dixi 3/15 PS in 1928 which was built under license from Austin and was really the same model as the Japanese Datsun.
The first real in-house BMW arrived in 1933 and was called the BMW 303 saloon. After the war and three year manufacturing ban, BMW struggled to get back its’ footing and the first model after the war was the BMW 501 which was equipped with a V8 engine. In the end the company proved to be very resilient and today BMW products are owned by wealthy tasteful owners the world over.
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