Have you ever wondered why?
For our June members meeting I put together a few fun facts from BMW’s history. I’m glad to say that those who attended found it interesting and entertaining!
I will not try and write out the entire presentation, mainly because I type too slowly!
For those who could not make it I’ll briefly cover the first of the questions - Have you ever wondered why some think the BMW logo is a spinning propeller?
From this very question you can deduce that the “roundel” is not based on a spinning propeller, but BMW used a picture indicating that it was in some of their advertising in the 1920’s. To make the advertising seem credible they even invented a back story to go with it.
The story goes that a BMW engineer was watching a plane landing after a test flight (of the engine – BMW originally made aero engines) and saw the pattern made by the propeller and thought what a great logo that would make. Just add the letters BMW in the area around the edge of the propeller and its done.
Sadly, there are two major issues with that story.
The first, and most obvious, is that a spinning propeller is nigh on invisible to the naked eye. The “four quadrant” effect is a device used by artists to convey motion, you can not actually see it. Spinning propellers on film sometimes give this effect due to the synchronisation of the camera shutter and the propeller rotation.
The band around the end of the propeller, onto which the BMW letters are imposed, is actually there because the end of the blades are painted white to help you see the prop spin!
So, the engineer would not have seen the 4 quadrants at all.
The second issue is that by the time any plane took off equipped with a BMW engine, the engine would already have the roundel logo cast into the side of the block. All BMW engines did (and do).
The roundel logo for BMW was adapted from the roundel logo used by Rapp Motor Works, a company which was renamed by Austrian military supervisor, Franz Joseph Popp, who was sent to Rapp to supervise the manufacture of 224 Type IIIa engines to the Daimler design.
German military engines were built to an interchangeable design, so any Type IIIa engine could be used in a Type IIIa plane. The actual design of the engine was determined by the manufacturer.
Rapp’s engines were of variable quality and performance, varying from bad to dreadful. So much so that they were not even trusted to make engines to a proven good design without outside supervision.
Ex Daimler engineer Max Friz, now at Rapp, had developed a carburettor and engine design which would fly higher (a key military advantage to this day) and use less fuel. Tests proved this to be so, and, ignoring orders from High Command, Popp had engines to the Friz design built instead of the Daimler design.
Popp recognised the need to distance the company from the reputation of the Rapp era so he took on the imprimatur of the regional government calling the new company Bavarian Motor Works and adopting the white and blue state colours. It was illegal to use a national or state logo as a company logo, so the quartered white and blue fields were reversed. This idea was applied to the existing Rapp Motor Works roundel logo to make the BMW roundel we know today.
The name BMW and the roundel design were registered in March 1917 (not 1916 as you may have thought – have you ever wondered why that is?)
The BMW engine went on to be the aero engine of choice for German WW1 pilots and Opel were commissioned to build engines of the BMW design.
Popp realised that pilots not only liked the performance of this engine but the way it delivered that performance, the feeling of pleasure and confidence it gave.
This became the company mandate, known today by the tag line from an American advertising agency as “sheer driving pleasure”.
Lawrence Glynn | Secretary
BMW Drivers Club Melbourne
The Ultimate Driving Club
