the United Kingdom with the Phoenix engine for launches (though expressing thoughts for cars) having obtained from him British (and British Empire) rights to the Daimler patents. In 1893 Simms formed The Daimler Motor Syndicate Limited (DMS). At the end of 1895 Simms received an offer from a London company promoter called Lawson of, at first, £35,000 to purchase all the Daimler rights. As part of the necessary arrangements, Maybach and Daimler having parted from DMG, Simms arranged to pay the now drifting DMG £17,100 on the condition that DMG took back Gottlieb Daimler. A 'contract of reassociation' was signed on November 1, 1895. The result was the divided Daimler-Maybach and DMG businesses then merged and were rejuvenated. In early 1896, having agreed with Daimler Motor Syndicate it would buy the Daimler rights, Lawson floated The Daimler Motor Company Limited (DMC) in London (with Gottlieb Daimler a director), the works to be in a disused cotton mill in Coventry. Simms became a director of DMG (Cannstatt) but not DMC (London). In 1910 Daimler Motor Company while retaining a separate identity, merged ownership with that of BSA (munitions), and began producing military vehicles. It also dropped the word motor from its name. For over 65 years, The Daimler Company Limited produced a wide variety of premium quality vehicles including buses, ambulances, fire engines and some trucks but in particular medium-sized and large cars which were often very expensive. Their vehicles were distinguished by their finned exposed radiators, later by scalloped radiator shells. Until the early 1950s it was often said "the aristocracy buy Daimlers, the nouveau riche buy Rolls-Royce". In 1960 the business was sold to Jaguar, which soon engaged in badge-engineering and often Jaguar and Daimler cars could only be distinguished by the grille and name badge. In 2005 the only Daimler models being produced were luxury models, such as the Daimler Super Eight. The Daimler name moved with Jaguar into British Leyland, back to an independent Jaguar, and then into Ford. In July 2008 Tata Group, the current owners of Jaguar and Daimler, announced they were considering transforming Daimler into "a super-luxury marque to compete directly with Bentley and Rolls-Royce". An application to register the Daimler name by Jaguar as a trademark in the US was rejected in 2009. Airships and fixed-wing aircraft Daimler built the engine for the first airship fuelled by petrol in 1888. From 1899 to