In 1954, Wankel finished designing a rotary piston engine for NSU known as the Drehkolbenmotor (or the DKM). This ...

Dubbed the DKM 54, this engine had a rotor and housing ... This engine is the basis of the modern “Wankel” rotary engine. Piston powered engines, chiefly the Otto and Diesel cycle, are current ...

Working together, Wankel and NSU created a full working prototype, the DKM, which was the first ever rotary engine. Just a year later, in 1958, the second prototype rotary engine was finished.