BRITISH Airways' planes will soon feature designs based on flags produced by a company in Chatham Dockyard.

The new look, designed by the Admiral's Original Flagloft at the Historic Dockyard Chatham, will replace BA's controversial ethnic designs. BA visited the flagmakers to check the details of the Union Jack for the tailfin design. And the design, currently displayed on 164 planes, is being rolled out across the entire fleet.

The Admiral's Original Flagloft has recently left the dockyard but is still producing flags as United Flag Traders in Swansea with an office in Walderslade.

Manager Peter Cornwall said: "British Airways came to us because we are official flagmakers and they wanted to check the specifications of the Union flag.

"We can't claim to have designed the Union flag but we were asked to produce silk Union flags for British Airways' reception. We make flags for the Queen, royal aircraft and Ministry of Defence."

The design is a stylised version of the Union flag and was originally used on all seven Concorde planes but it will soon decorate all 300 British Airways' aircraft.

Chatham Historic Dockyard will be mentioned under the pilot's window on the outside of most of the aircraft.