Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has been made an honorary RAF Group Captain.
The heavy metal legend was enrolled as a member of the 601 (County of London) Squadron this week as a reward for his long-term support of the RAF.
Dickinson, 61, worth an estimated £90million, trained as a pilot after taking a break from Iron Maiden in the 1990s.
He rejoined the group in 1999, flying his bandmates on world tours in Ed Force One – an adapted Boeing 747.
The plane’s livery includes the band’s distinctive logo and mascot, Eddie, painted on the tail.
The rocker formed a close alliance with the RAF in 2008, when he took the controls of an MoD-chartered 747 to bring pilots home from Afghanistan to RAF Wittering in Cambridgeshire.
He got even closer when he made an emergency landing at RAF Halton, Buckinghamshire, in August 2015 – when his replica World War I Fokker triplane almost ran out
of fuel.
With a professional airline licence, Dickinson has flown planes for BA and easyJet, as well as high-profile flights for now-closed British airline Astraeus – including flying Liverpool FC to Naples for their European Cup match against Napoli in October 2010.
An RAF source said: “It’s absolutely fantastic that Bruce has been made an honorary Group Captain.
“He’s a keen aviator and loves the RAF. He’s a first-class bloke.”
