Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson flies Liverpool team to game..
Discussion
He's been a commercial pilot for a while now. They did a tour recently that fans could buy tickets for the flight that included concert tickets. They chartered a 757 from an airline.
It was called flight 666, the plane was called Ed force one!
Between concerts it would go back to the airline who owned it and would be used for regular commercial flights - they had a lot of passengers refuse to get on it!
It was called flight 666, the plane was called Ed force one!
Between concerts it would go back to the airline who owned it and would be used for regular commercial flights - they had a lot of passengers refuse to get on it!
Edited by mxspyder on Wednesday 20th October 18:31
mxspyder said:
Between concerts it would go back to the airline who owned it and would be used for regular commercial flights - they had a lot of passengers refuse to get on it!
No it didn't, check the conversion they did on the interior:http://www.flyastraeus.com/combi/iron-maiden-tour....
Silent1 said:
mxspyder said:
Between concerts it would go back to the airline who owned it and would be used for regular commercial flights - they had a lot of passengers refuse to get on it!
No it didn't, check the conversion they did on the interior:http://www.flyastraeus.com/combi/iron-maiden-tour....
News for passengers on Bruce Air
Published: July 7, 2008
A personal message from Captain Bruce Dickinson
Dear 666 passenger,
I am gutted to have to tell you that Astraeus Airlines have been forced to remove the Iron Maiden decals (artwork transfers) from the Boeing 757 and that its now highly unlikely that operational proceedures will allow enough time to have the Ed Force One livery reinstated for my Bruce Air trips.
When we originally commissioned the 757 from Astraeus it was due to be reverted back to their normal airline branding at the end of the first leg of our tour. However Astraeus were getting such great feedback from passengers and airports around our tour, that they asked if they could retain the Iron Maiden decals when they took the plane back for their own normal charter flights. We thought this was great and it has since been flying European and Middle East routes with spectacular reaction.
Unfortunately for us, 'Ed Force One' was the only plane available from the Astraeus fleet to fly a new and regular route into and out of an African country on a recent new route. The striking Iron Maiden imagery had a violent reaction from the locals as they regarded the artwork, particularly that of Eddie, as very bad ju ju. Not only would local passengers refuse to board the plane because of the artwork, but other passengers were refusing to board planes of other airlines parked nearby in case they were tainted by the evil spirits! This resulted in some furore among the attending passengers and even more among the airlines involved! As the liveried 757 is owned and maintained by Astraeus, they had no alternative but to strip off all the Iron Maiden artwork and return the plane to its usual livery to be able to continue on the new route .
As most seats on these trips were taken up before I announced that we would be using Ed Force One (Warsaw/Prague was already sold out), I really hope this isn't too much of a disappointment to you, and I much look forward to welcoming you aboard Bruce Air Flight AEU 666.
The team at ICT will keep you advised of any developments.
Best wishes,
Bruce
I have edited my post to clear up the minor details - Silent 1, perhaps you should too?
mxspyder said:
Silent1 said:
mxspyder said:
Between concerts it would go back to the airline who owned it and would be used for regular commercial flights - they had a lot of passengers refuse to get on it!
No it didn't, check the conversion they did on the interior:http://www.flyastraeus.com/combi/iron-maiden-tour....
News for passengers on Bruce Air
Published: July 7, 2008
A personal message from Captain Bruce Dickinson
Dear 666 passenger,
I am gutted to have to tell you that Astraeus Airlines have been forced to remove the Iron Maiden decals (artwork transfers) from the Boeing 757 and that its now highly unlikely that operational proceedures will allow enough time to have the Ed Force One livery reinstated for my Bruce Air trips.
When we originally commissioned the 757 from Astraeus it was due to be reverted back to their normal airline branding at the end of the first leg of our tour. However Astraeus were getting such great feedback from passengers and airports around our tour, that they asked if they could retain the Iron Maiden decals when they took the plane back for their own normal charter flights. We thought this was great and it has since been flying European and Middle East routes with spectacular reaction.
Unfortunately for us, 'Ed Force One' was the only plane available from the Astraeus fleet to fly a new and regular route into and out of an African country on a recent new route. The striking Iron Maiden imagery had a violent reaction from the locals as they regarded the artwork, particularly that of Eddie, as very bad ju ju. Not only would local passengers refuse to board the plane because of the artwork, but other passengers were refusing to board planes of other airlines parked nearby in case they were tainted by the evil spirits! This resulted in some furore among the attending passengers and even more among the airlines involved! As the liveried 757 is owned and maintained by Astraeus, they had no alternative but to strip off all the Iron Maiden artwork and return the plane to its usual livery to be able to continue on the new route .
As most seats on these trips were taken up before I announced that we would be using Ed Force One (Warsaw/Prague was already sold out), I really hope this isn't too much of a disappointment to you, and I much look forward to welcoming you aboard Bruce Air Flight AEU 666.
The team at ICT will keep you advised of any developments.
Best wishes,
Bruce
I have edited my post to clear up the minor details - Silent 1, perhaps you should too?
The plane when used by iron maiden had half of the passenger area converted to freight.
Silent1 said:
mxspyder said:
Between concerts it would go back to the airline who owned it and would be used for regular commercial flights - they had a lot of passengers refuse to get on it!
No it didn't, check the conversion they did on the interior:http://www.flyastraeus.com/combi/iron-maiden-tour....
I remember Bruce showing us the Ed Force 1 paint-scheme photos at Waltham at the time - he was typically over-excited about the whole thing ;-)
To aid the bickering above about graphics and conversion...
The graphics were on the plane for a while before the first conversion, and then for a while afterwards as the flying portion of the tour concluded and the plane went back into commercial service. They had to be removed over the summer (as explained above - bad juju!). Maiden then used the plane again for the final show in August '08 (Moscow) before it went back to commercial service.
In early '09 it was used for the final leg of the world tour (converted and with updated '09 graphics). Again, there was some commercial service at either end with the graphics on, as well as some private use - being taken down to the Cannes film festival for the premiere of Bruce's 'The Chemical Wedding' film.
The conversion takes about 3 days to do or un-do. The livery is easier to leave on whenever possible, after all it makes for a fantastic advert.
'Flight 666' is the name of the documentary/concert movie of the tour, they use the callsign Flystar 666.
The graphics were on the plane for a while before the first conversion, and then for a while afterwards as the flying portion of the tour concluded and the plane went back into commercial service. They had to be removed over the summer (as explained above - bad juju!). Maiden then used the plane again for the final show in August '08 (Moscow) before it went back to commercial service.
In early '09 it was used for the final leg of the world tour (converted and with updated '09 graphics). Again, there was some commercial service at either end with the graphics on, as well as some private use - being taken down to the Cannes film festival for the premiere of Bruce's 'The Chemical Wedding' film.
The conversion takes about 3 days to do or un-do. The livery is easier to leave on whenever possible, after all it makes for a fantastic advert.
'Flight 666' is the name of the documentary/concert movie of the tour, they use the callsign Flystar 666.
t.A friend of a friend is a pilot with Astraues (spelling?) and has flown with Bruce. They have had lots of problems with these African countries, for instance I believe once one of the countries decided they would up their airport taxes by a huge amount just after one of their flights had landed, when Astraues told them where to go they impounded their plane 
efectivily highway robbery or should that be airway robbery. The airline had no choice but pay the massive 'tax payment' in order to get their plane and staff back to the uk.
efectivily highway robbery or should that be airway robbery. The airline had no choice but pay the massive 'tax payment' in order to get their plane and staff back to the uk.
ive been flown by him a few times, he used to work for British world airlines on the oil route from Aberdeen to Scatsta in shetland which I used to fly on to get to the rigs.
never twigged at the time when you got the " this is the co-pilot, Bruce Dickinson speaking...." but saw an interview with him when he talked about flying that route regularly.
never twigged at the time when you got the " this is the co-pilot, Bruce Dickinson speaking...." but saw an interview with him when he talked about flying that route regularly.
Gassing Station | Boats, Planes & Trains | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff