British Airways has redecorated some of its aircraft to coincide with the Olympics, featuring a special gold ‘dove’ theme. This forms part of the BA Great Britons programme, celebrating the best in British talent in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The decorative paint was applied using stencils cut from film, using a Zund PN M1200 digital plotter owned and operated by British Airways.

The special Dove design is all encompassing of the livery, using the cockpit for its beak, fuselage and wings for its main body and wings, and the tailfin as its tail. The aircraft are white with gold strokes of paint to represent the feathers. One of them featured prominently in the news last week as it was used to fly the Olympic flame together with assorted celebrities into the UK from Athens.

Ensuring that the unique design could be successfully applied to the BA fleet of aircraft was a complex task that was managed by Phil Purbrick, BA Graphics Engineer who works in the BA Graphics Department.

Mr Purbrick is British Airway’s Zund expert. He has worked with the machines for 18 years and his skill with the PN M1200 and knowledge of the BA fleet ensured that the design could be successfully converted into the stencils that were laid on to the aeroplane prior to spray painting.

He said he is very proud to have been involved with the Great Britons programme. ‘The BA Doves aircraft is definitely one of the most intricate projects that I have been involved with. Knowing that I could rely on the Zund PN M1200 to perform was really important. It’s never let me down in all these years,’ he said.

British Airways replaced its original 15 year old Zund P1200 plotter with the PN M1200 three years ago. The BA Graphics Department is involved in projects for departments across British Airways, including both aircraft livery and in-house branding and marketing projects. The Graphics team will be working on another London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic project.  The details are still secret but the Zund PN M1200 is said to be playing a key part.  

Contact: www.zunduk.co.uk