IRON MAIDEN Frontman's Airline Taken Over By Sweden's FLYME

It is common knowledge that IRON MAIDEN has some of its most loyal fans in Sweden. In 2005, the British heavy metal band sold out the 56,000-capacity soccer stadium Ullevi in Gothenburg in less than two hours. The 50,000-plus tickets to the band's three concerts in Stockholm and Gothenburg in November 2006 were also sold out in record time. Now the ties between Sweden and IRON MAIDEN will be even closer. The troubled Swedish airline Flyme has bought 51 percent of the stocks in the British air carrier Astraeus and is making a big stink about the six-million-pound takeover, reports the business magazine Affärsvärlden. In addition to a fleet of ten Boeing 737 and 757 planes, Flyme has also secured the services of IRON MAIDEN vocalist Bruce Dickinson. The 49-year-old air-raid-siren-turned-pilot has been Astraeus' most high-profile pilot since 2003.

According to Telegraph.co.uk, Dickinson became fascinated by aeroplanes after attending airshows as a child in Worksop, Notts, where he grew up. At Oundle school he was a member of the combined cadet force and used the school's Link trainer, a basic full-size cockpit simulator formerly used to teach RAF trainees to fly.

"I used to sneak into the shed where it was kept, switch on, jump into the cockpit and fly it," he said. "I had no idea what I was doing, but it was great fun."

His dabblings on the trainer came to an end when he was expelled at the age of 16 for "a moment of madness" involving the headmaster's dinner.

Dickinson took up flight training in the early 1990s. He passed his private pilot's licence test, obtained a commercial licence and eventually, with fellow band members, bought a twin-engine aircraft which he piloted for tours in Europe and the U.S.

In the late 1990s, a friend who was a commercial pilot invited him to act as his co-pilot on a Boeing 737 simulator while he was being checked on for a job with the charter airline British World Airlines.

The simulator instructor was Capt. John Mahon, the airline's operations director. "John was curious to find out about my flying skills and invited me to fly the sim. He later asked me for an interview and said he was looking for pilots."

Dickinson started flying as a co-pilot for British World on charter flights around the Mediterranean and to West Africa, before the airline folded at the end of 2001.

When a number of BWA executives launched their own airline, Astraeus, in January 2002, Dickinson went with them.

Capt. Mahon, now operations director of Astraeus said: "Bruce demonstrated a high level of flying skill and an operational maturity required for the position. I am delighted at his progression to flying our Boeing 737s."

Several of Dickinson's passengers have been taken aback to find themselves being flown by a famous rock star.

"We have had IRON MAIDEN fans on board who when they heard my name being announced as first officer asked the hostesses if it was the rock star. When told it was they spent the flight with their jaws on the floor then ask if they can have a chat with me," he said.

"After we landed a couple of fans have put their heads around the door and have said 'Oh my God, it is him.'"