| With the BMW 801, BMW Flugmotorenbau GmbH developed the first German twin-row radial engine. With the Nazi regime’s ever-expanding military build-up and the subsequent war, during which the BMW 801 found extensive use as the powerplant for a number of fighter aircraft, among them the Focke-Wulf Fw190, the company pushed the speed of development and the scale of production to the limits of its capacity. Sadly it even went far beyond, especially towards the end of the war, when thousands of forced laborers had to work at the plant to further increase its output. After just two years of development, the first engines were delivered in 1940, and production — which mainly took place in Munich-Allach — was ramped up to around 1,000 units per month by early 1944. In all, the company produced some 30,000 BMW 801s. (source: www.mtu.de) |
