YEAR 1913

Few know that BMW started as a manufacturer of aircraft engines. In October 1913 Karl Friedrich Rapp establishes Rapp-Motorenwerke in a former bicycle factory near Munich. Rapp was an engineer who arise through the Daimler system and Rapp-Motorenwerke was set up as a subsidiary of Flugwerk, an aircraft maker. He starts manufacturing his own aircraft engines but unfortunately they suffered form problems with vibrations.

Close to Rapp´s factory, Gustav Otto, the son of the inventor of the four-stroke internal combustion engine, sets up a business building small air crafts. Otto enjoys great success with Gustav Flugmaschinefabrik.

                                                            Karl Friedrich Rapp

Karl Friedrich Rapp - Short presentation

 Early life

Very little is known of his childhood and adolescent years. However, it is known that Rapp learned the engineering profession and was employed by Züst automotive company from approx. 1908 to 1911. It is believed he was active as a technical designer with Daimler Benz until 1912. Rapp left Daimler-Benz to head a branch of Flugwerk Deutschland GmbH.

Aircraft engine manufacturing

Flugwerk Deutschland GmbH probably transferred its headquarters from Gelsenkirchen-Rotthausen to Brand near Aachen. The articles of association were ratified on February 15, 1912, and the entry in the Aachen Commercial Register was effected on March 5, 1912. The object of the business was the manufacture and sale of aircraft, the construction and sale of machinery and equipment in the areas of aircraft engineering and operation of airfields and aerodromes. On 20 May 1913, a branch was set up for aeroengine production at Schleissheimer Straße 288 (near the first airport on the Oberwiesenfeld) in Munich-Milbertshofen , and Karl Rapp and Joseph Wirth were given power of attorney in Munich. Rapp, working as an engineer and operations manager for the company, engaged in the construction of several biplanes and a monoplane. Rapp also designed aeroengines, one of which was the FD 1416 aeroengine. The company took participation in the General Air Show in Berlin in 1912. However, the company was dissolved by a resolution of the shareholders on April 16, 1913, and Joseph Wirth was appointed as sole liquidator. After the liquidation process had been brought to an end, the company was wound up on August 8, 1916.

Later life

After Rapp left the company (immediately it was renamed BMW) he became chief engineer and head of the Aeroengine Department of the L.A. Riedlinger Machine Factory where he was probably employed until October 1923.
Rapp lived in Switzerland from 1934, running a small observatory making solar observations.
Karl Friedrich Rapp died in 1962 in Locarno.