BMW Logo

While most people think BMW’s logo is a representation of a spinning propeller, an understandable mistake given the automaker’s roots in aircraft engine manufacturing, the truth actually lies elsewhere. The first time the logo was used on a vehicle was actually on a motorbike, the R32 model of 1923. However, the first recorded use of the logo was in fact on a service manual printed in 1918. The first depiction of the logo as the spinning blades of an aircraft, meanwhile, wasn’t until 1929. That is because the logo was actually derived from another logo used by Rapp Motorenwerke, an...