Before the company made high-end motorcycles and cars, it powered some of Germany’s preeminent fighter airplanes as far back as World War I. Germany was locked in a battle with the British and French for air superiority, and the Fokker D.VII helped give it a leg up. The garishly painted biplane was a menace to the Allies with its ability to fire into the underbellies of other aircraft.
(A later production Fokker D.VII equipped with the BMW III engine.)
The Fokker D.VII gave German pilots a distinct advantage, but the French and British were quickly catching up, said Jeremy Kinney, curator for the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
First powered by a Mercedes 160-horsepower engine, the Fokker D.VII later received an even higher-performing engine from a fledgling company, BMW. The Munich-based company made a 185-horsepower engine that increased the speed of the airplane from 117 mph to 125 mph and catapulted its rate of climb.
Junkers Ju52
By 1932, the German airline, Lufthansa, had sufficiently recovered from the economic woes of the 1920’s to put in service a three-engine civil transport plane, the Junkers Ju 52/3m.Based on a short-lived single engine model, the Ju 52 first flew in April 1931 and quickly became the workhorse of both the airline and the reviving Luftwaffe, with a standard passenger-carrying load of 17. During the Spanish Civil War, the Ju 52 ferried more than 10,000 Moorish troops from Morocco to Spain, as well as dropping 6000 tons of bombs.
With three BMW engines of 725 horsepower each, the Ju 52 had a maximum speed of 171 mph and a range of 800 miles. For air defense and tactical ground support the bomber carried two 7.92 machineguns and could be fitted with a variety of bomb racks as the need arose; the plane's trademark corrugated skin produced a very solid airframe.
By the beginning of World War Two over 1,000 Ju 52’s were in service; eventually a total of 5,000 planes would fly the Nazi colors performing every imaginable mission from troop transport to mine-laying on all fronts. During the war some thirteen ‘variations on a theme’ saw improved radios, interchangeable float/ski/wheel landing gear (indicating the wide range of Luftwaffe requirements), better armor and engines, and heavier defensive armament.
In Spain, Casa built 170 Ju 52s for the Spanish air force, under the designation Casa 352, and even France built the airplane, under the designation AAC.1 Toucan.
Demonstrating the plane’s strength, three aircraft sold to Swiss Air remained in service until 1981 and are still flying in private hands today. Several others still fly charter and sightseeing flights throughout the world
Adolf Hitler's personal transport
Hitler used a Deutsche LuftHansa Ju 52 for campaigning in the 1932 German election, preferring flying to transport by train. After he became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Hans Baur became his personal pilot, and Hitler was provided with a personal Ju 52. Named Immelmann II after the World War I ace Max Immelmann, it carried the registration D-2600. As his power and importance grew, Hitler's personal air force grew to nearly 50 aircraft, based at Berlin Tempelhof Airport and made up of mainly Ju 52s, which also flew other members of his cabinet and war staff. In September 1939 at Baur's suggestion, his personal Ju 52 Immelmann II was replaced by the four-engine Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor, although Immelman II remained his backup aircraft for the rest of World War II.
BMW made engines for the World War II German Nazi fighter Focke-Wulf FW-190, in December 1943.
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