To celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2000, Gulf Air commissionned Tunisian artist Nja Mahdaoui to design 4 unique liveries based on his abstract calligrams. Mahdaoui considers himself 'an explorer of signs' and has been described as a 'choreographer of letters'. The abstract forms he combines are made of individual letters which entwine but do not have any intrinsic meaning. Part of his work can be seen here. The huge success of these liveries meant they were kept much longer than expected, with the "50" logos on the white engines logically removed rather quickly and replaced by the standard logo. In 2007 the aircraft was transferred to the Bahraini register after the withdrawal of Oman from Gulf Air.
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