BMW 003

BMW 003
BMW 003 engine at the Luftwaffenmuseum der Bundeswehr
Type	Turbojet
Manufacturer	BMW
First run	August 1940
Major applications	Heinkel He 162
Number built	500

The BMW 003 (full RLM designation BMW 109-003) was an early axial compressor turbojet engine produced by BMW AG in Germany during World War II. The 003 and the Junkers Jumo 004 were the only German turbojet engines to reach production during World War II.

Work had begun on the design of the BMW 003 before its contemporary, the Jumo 004, but prolonged developmental problems meant that the BMW 003 entered production much later, and the aircraft projects that had been designed with it in mind were re-engined with the Jumo powerplant instead. The most famous case of this was the Messerschmitt Me 262, which used the 003 in two of the V-series prototypes and in the two experimental A-1b aircraft. The only production aircraft to use the BMW 003 were the Heinkel He 162 and the later C-series, four-engined versions of the Arado Ar 234.

About 500 BMW 003 engines were built in Germany, but very few were ever installed in aircraft. The engine also formed the basis for turbojet development in Japan during the war, and in the Soviet Union following the war. A larger derivative was the BMW 018, but only three prototypes had been built by the end of the war. This version was used as the basis for the successful post-war French Snecma Atar.

The practicality of jet propulsion had been demonstrated in Germany in early 1937 by Hans von Ohain working with the Heinkel company. Recognising the potential of the invention, the Reich Air Ministry (German: Reichsluftfahrtministerium, abbreviated RLM) encouraged Germany's aero engine manufacturers to begin their own programmes of jet engine development, offering contracts to both Junkers and BMW for an engine capable of 690 kg (1,520 lb) static thrust.

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