Iron Maiden unveil new Ed Force One

Never ones to do things by halves, the mighty Iron Maiden are taking touring to a new level next year, using a massive Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet for the Book Of Souls World Tour!

Bruce Dickinson, who flew two sets of Planet Rock winners to Paris for our amazing playback competition, is currently in training for his license to fly the bigger four-engined plane: "E__ven though we have worked out the logistics of taking a plane of that immense size out on tour, I still have to learn to fly it before we can go anywhere!" Luckily it just so happens that his own airline has got a simulator which he'll be using to earn his stripes...

To get a sense of the scale of The Book of Souls World Tour 2016, the new Ed Force One is almost twice the size and over three times the weight of the band's previous Boeing 757! It will take the crew and over 12 tons of equipment more than 55,000 miles around the planet with concerts in six of the seven continents, with the tour expected to visit around 35 countries.

Of the new plane, Bruce Dickinson enthuses: “The greatest benefit of travelling in a 747 is that because of its colossal size and freight capacity we can carry our stage production and all our stage equipment and desks in the cargo hold without having to make any of the immense structural modifications needed to do this on the previous 757."

Details of the precise schedule are currently being finalised and will be revealed in the next few weeks, so keep checking back with Planet Rock! However the band have revealed that they will be in Europe in late May, finishing early August.

Other plots on the provisional tour include the band's first ever gigs in China and El Salvador,as well as stops in the US, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa, amongst others.

Check out the evolution of Ed Force One below: 

'Book Of Souls' by Iron Maiden is released on 4th September 2015 - you can find out more about it here!