..small add on ..
1917 - The Rapp Motor Company is renamed BMW.
1919 - Franz Zeno Diemer sets the first BMW world record, reaching 9760 metres with an aircraft powered by the BMW IV engine. Beat that !
1924 - The first intercontinental flight to Persia powered by BMW engines.
1926 - The Rohrbach Ro VII flying boat sets five world records with a BMW VI aircraft engine.
1927 - This year saw the achievement of a total of 87 world records in aviation. 29 of them were set with BMW engines.
1930 - Wolfgang von Gronau crosses the North Atlantic in 44 hours from east to west in a Dornier
Whale open flying boat powered by BMW engines. BMW Hornet and BMW Xa are the names of the first radial engines from the BMW works in Munich.
1934 - The production of aircraft engines becomes an independent business unit: BMW Flugmotorenbau GmbH. The BMW 132 radial engine is the first in-house development based on a Pratt & Whitney design.
1940 - Series production starts up of the 801 aircraft engine. Around 30,000 are built by 1945.
1943 - A BMW jet flies for the first time. The model is 109-003. It goes into production the following year as one of the world's first jet engines.
1944 - BMW was one of the first companies to mass-produce engines for the jet age, equipping Me262, Arado234 and He162 aircraft with first-generation jet engines. BMW tests rockets for the war effort in Basdorf.
1945 - At the end of the Second World War, BMW lies in ruins. The works in Eisenach and Dorrerhof, Basdorf and Zuhlsdorf are lost. The factory in Munich is dismantled. The victorious Allies impose a three-year ban on production because of the company's involvement in constructing aircraft engines and rockets.
1990 - BMW forms a joint venture with the British aerospace company Rolls-Royce PLC to produce aircraft engines for business jets.
Today, in partnership with Rolls-Royce, BMW produces the BR700 family of aircraft engines. The BMW RR 715 powers the Boeing 717 aircraft.
..and, why on earth that fella on the top (one of previous threads), painted BMW with us warbird call signs is beyond me..piiihh..what a taste
.soo..you wanna paint your 'bird' properly..then here it is..real BMW bird.. Focke - Wulf FW 190A-8 .. reaall tough fella..