The BMW 003 began development as a project of the Brandenburgische Motorenwerke (The Brandenburg Motor Works, known as "Bramo ") under the direction of Hermann Östrich and assigned the RLM designation 109-003 (using the RLM's "109-" prefix, common to all jet and rocket engine projects).
The prisoners there built parts, sub-assemblies and BMW 003 turbojet engines for the He 162 jet fighter in a hastily-converted underground factory during late autumn and spring 1945.
When the Me 262 A-1a was to be experimentally equipped with different engines, in this given case the BMW 003 units, it became the Me 262 A-1b.
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In Germany, von Ohain had produced several working centrifugal engines, some of which had flown including the world's first jet aircraft (He 178), but development efforts had moved on to Junkers (Jumo 004) and BMW (BMW 003), which used axial-flow designs in the world's first jet fighter (Messerschmitt Me 262) and jet bomber (Arado Ar 234).
The Ne-20 was made possible by Imperial Japanese Navy engineer Eichi Iwaya obtaining photographs and a single cut-away drawing of the German BMW 003 engine.