Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson takes to skies in WWI plane
He may have just flown around the world for yet another global tour in front of adoring fans, but Iron Maiden’s lead singer Bruce Dickinson would nowadays rather be in the pilot’s seat than in front of the microphone. Which is why next month he will be climbing into the cockpit of a replica First World War plane at the Duxford Air Show and taking to the skies as part of a historic aircraft display team.
Dickinson, who will pilot a replica Fokker Dr1 triplane, said he is now a singer only in his “spare time”. Such is his passion for flying historic aircraft that he joked that he should have been born in 1898.
The heavy metal frontman has held a pilot’s licence for more than two decades. He also runs an aircraft maintenance business on a former Ministry of Defence base, three miles from Cardiff airport.
Dickinson, 56, joined The Great War Display Team this year after buying a replica Fokker Dr1 triplane – the model was used by Manfred von Richthofen, known as the Red Baron, during the First World War.
He will fly at Duxford Air Show alongside the team’s Sopwith triplane, Royal Aircraft Factory SE5, Junkers CLI and Royal Aircraft Factory BE2 aircraft.
The singer, whose godfather and uncle both served in the RAF, qualified as a commercial pilot in the 1990s and flew Iron Maiden on their 2008-09 world tour in a converted Boeing 747, named Ed Force One after the band’s ghoulish mascot Eddie the Head.
He said he only decided against applying to join the RAF and turned to rock music instead because he was “rubbish at maths and physics”.
“I started actually flying at the ripe old age of 30 and 7,000 hours later
I finished up as a Boeing 757 captain and 737 instructor. Luckily the aircraft design I fly is still older than me but the gap is closing.
“In my spare time I sing a bit, own a company that fixes airliners and am trying to bring airships back into the skies,” he said, adding: “I should have been born in 1898, not 1958. C’est la vie.”
The annual Duxford Air Show, which will be held on September 13 and 14, features 40 aircraft from different decades and attracts around 25,000 visitors each day.
Source: The Telegraph
