WANKEL Rotary Engine History On 1st February 1957, the inventor Felix Wankel (born 1902 in Lahr/Germany) and his team put in action for the first time ever a rotary piston engine which was being developed during the 50s (patent 1954). The DKM-54 engine had 125 ccm and 29 hp at 17,000 rpm. So Felix Wankel and his team in Lindau/Bodensee/Germany proved that a rotary piston engine is basically suited as propulsion unit. It was in the very same year that the first rotary piston engine KKM-57 (which was designed for series production) was run on test benches at NSU-Werke AG in Neckarsulm/Germany (nowadays: AUDI AG) with which Felix Wankel was in close cooperation. In 1960, on the occasion of a conference of German engineers at the German Museum in Munich, Felix Wankel presented his KKM-250 to a first sceptical but later on enthusiastic public. After WANKEL GmbH (nowadays located in Korb) had concluded a cooperation agreement and a license agreement with NSU Werke AG (60 % NSU, 40 % WANKEL), the rotary piston engine started his triumphal march around the world. After that both partners founded NSU-WANKEL GmbH, located in Neckarsulm/Germany.for central research and development of the rotary piston technology was established at NSU AG in Neckarsulm/Germany. From 1965 to 1975 more than 1 million WANKEL engines were manufactured and sold by the licensees Toyo Kogyo (MAZDA), Fichtel & Sachs, Joh. Graupner, Outboard Marine, Suzuki and by NSU itself. NSU AG had a series production of approx. 60,000 WANKEL engines for application in vehicles (NSU-Spider, RO-80), vessels and aircrafts. Fichtel & Sachs manufactured approx. 35,000 stationary engines and propulsion units for motorcycles (Hercules W-2000, KC-27, 294 ccm, 27 PS). MAZDA manufactured one of the most successful high-performance sports cars of the world (RX-7: 1.3 million cars sold), a luxury coupé (COSMO) and has manufactured a total of more than 2 million 2-rotor and 3-rotor WANKEL engines until 1997. Up to that year MAZDA was and is the first and only Japanese car manufacturer to win the "24 hours from Le Mans" in 1991 with a WANKEL engine (2 x 1.3 l aspirating engine). MAZDA Motors Co. was the first car manufacturer worldwide to guarantee a performance of 100,000 miles for the 13B series of the Wankel rotary piston engine, being clear evidence of the high reliability of this engine construction.