Ok, here is a quiz for a rainy Friday afternoon. You will of course recognize the iconic badge above: the BMW logo, that famous, immediately recognizable symbol of The Ultimate Driving Machine for decades. This one dates from about 2007.
Below, you will find two more logos. One is a view through plane's propeller, showing BMW lettering in the perimeter. The second logo also shows a ring with lettering, different from the first, with a horse symbol in the center.
Which of those two logos is the origin of today's BMW logo?
From which of those two logos did the present logo derive?
THIS:
The Rapp Motor logo was the origin of the BMW logo. BMW formed March 3, 1916 making motorbikes.
LED TO THIS:
Circa 1917.
WHICH LED TO THIS: 
Circa 1929. From the cover of a 1929 BMW aircraft engine magazine.
"For many years, it was believed that the blue and white parts of the BMW logo symbolize the sky, seen through moving propeller blades, as seen on the cover of a 1929 BMW aircraft engine magazine. But the logo first appeared in the 1918 Bayern-Flugmotor manual, and was the first time the BMW logo appeared in a printed publication. This logo came from the original Rapp Motor aircraft engine manufacturer logo, the compnay that grew into BMW as we know it today."
The Blue and White colors in the logo are the national colors of Bavaria, the home of BMW. They are also the colors of the Bavarian Royal Family, and their placement is reportedly reversed in the BMW logo, in deference to that fact.
"flag: white over light blue."
The Royal House of Bavaria
Great article thanks to 95BMWIC in E30 bimmerforums:
http://www.bmwdean.com/roundel-myth.pdf
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/bmw-roundel-not-born-from-planes/?pagewanted=all
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