You may have heard of Ed Force One, Iron Maiden’s tour plane. Well, in 2015, in preparation for their staggering 70 date Book Of Souls World Tour, Ed Force One was upgraded from the previous Boeing 757 to the enormous Boeing 747-400. The plane has a whopping 64.4 metre wingspan and is about 70 metres in length; compared to the previous 757, it is absolutely enormous:
It may seem rather lavish, but with 70 worldwide dates in 6 months, this upgrade actually save them money:
“The greatest benefit of traveling in a 747 is that, because of its colossal size and freight capacity, we can carry our stage production and all our stage equipment and desks in the cargo hold without having to make any of the immense structural modifications needed to do this on the previous 757,” said Dickinson. “All we will need to do is ‘paint’ it and move a few seats around, with the added advantage that there is much more room for band and crew – our Krew can almost get a row of seats each to catch up on sleep on the flights!” – Bruce Dickinson
You can imagine that loading all the stage gear on to the 178 ton machine make for a rather hefty load; so much so that this heavy metal harbinger was recently proclaimed to be too heavy for the runway at Germany’s Dortmund International Airport. Dickinson is a qualified commercial pilot and is flying the plane for their tour. He was scheduled to bring the band’s behemoth in to Dortmund on May 25th for their appearance at Rock im Revier, but due to the problem with the weight, the flight has been rescheduled to arrive at Düsseldorf a day early.
UK festival goers could well be in for a treat later this year: As part of their Book Of Souls Tour, Iron Maiden will be Sunday’s headliners at the UK’s epic Download Festival at Donington Park on June 12th. Being located underneath the flight path of East Midlands Airport, there is a distinct possibility that metal fans might be able to catch a glimpse this airborne beast as the band arrive for the show. Fingers crossed!
Bruce Dickinson talks about the plane:
And you can see Mr. Dickinson landing the huge plane for the first time as it arrived in Fort Lauderdale to kick off The Book Of Souls tour:
