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First Aircraft Due At IRON MAIDEN Singer's Venture In Weeks

July 20, 2012

IRON MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dicksinson recently launched an aircraft maintenance business, Cardiff Aviation Ltd, which is based at the Twin Peaks Hangar at St Athan, Vale of Glamorgan in Wales, United Kingdom. Dickinson, a qualified commercial pilot, and his company are leasing the 132,000 square-foot hangar from the Welsh government.

According to WalesOnline, the first aircraft to arrive for servicing at the facility will be a McDonell Douglas MD-11. The wide-body aircraft most easily identified because of a third engine mounted at its tail is used by an African operator.

Dickinson is currently on tour with IRON MAIDEN in North America, but Cardiff Aviation's new executive chairman Mario Fulgoni said the singer was still finding the time to be involved in the business, holding meetings with potential customers in the U.S. and keeping in close touch with developments in South Wales.

"Bruce is on the phone and the band starts playing and he says, 'I have to go now,'" said Fulgoni. "I am planning to meet up with him in the States soon to talk to some major aircraft companies."

According to Barry & District News, the first piece of equipment into the hangar at St Athan was a Boeing 747-200 flight simulator. The B747 is one of the world's biggest aircraft and the simulator will be used to train experienced pilots undergoing annual refresher training, as well as pilots new to professional aviation.

Dickinson, who currently trains pilots on a variety of aircraft flight simulators at other U.K. locations, said, "This is a big, serious piece of kit which involved a police escort on oversized trucks to transport it from the Gatwick area where it had previously been used to train pilots flying Virgin Atlantic's Boeing 747s. It is now being installed in our St Athan HQ Ð known as Twin Peaks Ð and we already have agreements in place for training and type-rating courses from the day the simulator comes online, with pilots and students coming not just from the U.K., but from around the world."

Footage of Dickinson giving a short video tour of Cardiff Aviation can be seen below.

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