Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson is a pilot and warplanes enthusiast. So it’s no surprise the band has been incorporating a Spitfire plane replica for the conclusion of their concert as they play “Aces High.”
“We would have made it actual size, but we had to cut it down by 10 percent to fit on some of the festival stages,” Dickinson previously said. “Otherwise, it’s an exact replica of arguably the greatest plane design ever — in fact, one of the best-designed machines ever.”
Dickinson also previously told The Daily Mail he wanted to details of the replica to be exact to avoid scrutiny from military historians.
“Being a bit of an aviation geek, I said, ‘Okay, is this is a Battle Of Britain Spitfire?’” Dickinson explained. “They said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘Well, it’s got 20mm cannons and they didn’t fit those on Spits until later, so where is this Spitfire from? They said, ‘Does that matter?’ I said, ‘Yes, it does matter. If we’re going to put a Spitfire up there, I want to know the real backstory. They had pulled it off the Internet where it was available as a 3-D model. I know people who are into war planes and to put something up unthinkingly and go, ‘Well, it’s just a Spitfire,’ is not good enough.”
During Maiden’s recent concert in Worcester Massachusetts, the band unfortunately suffered a bit of a Spinal Tap moment when the Spitfire replica got stuck while making its way to the front of the stage. Video shows roadies scrambling to solve the issue before removing the plane. Dickinson can be seen looking back wondering what had happened.
Iron Maiden is concluding its “Legacy Of The Beast” tour in North America which originally started in May of 2018. By the time the trek is over, Maiden will have played to more than 3 million fans in 33 countries over 139 concerts.
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