Bruce Pilots Some Heavy Metal
Bruce Dickinson recently spoke to Australia's News.com.au about his career as a commercial airline pilot with Astraeus Airlines.Dickinson has been flying for Astraeus for six years and moved to the captain's seat last May. "I never got into flying because I was pretty crap at maths and physics at school so I just thought I'd be too stupid so ended up being a rock singer instead," he said.
"Then when our drummer got his pilot's licence I thought, 'Blimey, if he can get a pilot's licence, I must be able to'."
After qualifying, the rock star flew the band around the world in a Cessna 421 but quickly developed a hunger for bigger planes.
"Although they pay me pretty well as the singer with IRON MAIDEN, I'm not quite in the John Travolta league of being able to afford my own 707," he said.
Dickinson circulated his CV and finally got a job as a 757 first officer with British World Airlines. The company failed in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks but Astraeus rose from its ashes.
The conversion of Ed Force One to a combination passenger and freight aircraft cost more than $500,000.
Dickinson says the band is attracting a new generation of fans. "We're playing to a million and half people on this tour, it's incredible," he said.
"I just think it's the fact that we're one of the last originals."
"We haven't changed, we haven't compromised ourselves, we haven't done a deal with Mastercard."
"With Maiden it's about the music and that's it. What you see is what you get."