Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of Iron Maiden and pilot for The Great War Display Team, flew into IWM Duxford today (Tuesday, September 9th) in his replica Fokker Dr1 aircraft, reports Wisbech Standard's John Elworthy.

He was accompanied by Gordon Brander, team leader of The Great War Display Team, who flew a replica Sopwith Triplane.

As we commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, The Great War Display Team takes to the skies at The Duxford Air Show this weekend (Saturday, September 13th and Sunday, September 14th) with replica First World War Fokker Dr1 triplanes, a Sopwith triplane, Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a aircraft, Junkers CLI aircraft and Royal Aircraft Factory BE2 aircraft.

Bruce said: “First World War aircraft are what I would term “unfailingly interesting” in their flying characteristics. The triplanes in particular are independent-minded on the ground. In the air it is a pure dogfighter. Best described by its best-known exponent Baron Manfred von Richtofen: “It climbs like a monkey and turns like the devil.”

“My Godfather, Flight Sergeant John Booker, was one of Trenchard’s apprentices and is buried at RAF Cranwell. He is responsible for my love of aviation. I sat on his knee with his engineering models and listened to stories about the siege of Malta, in which he took part. I have his medals and service bible."

Read more at this location.

Dickinson, 56, joined The Great War Display Team this year after buying a replica Fokker Dr1 triplane - the model was used by Manfred von Richthofen, known as the Red Baron, during the First World War. He will fly at Duxford Air Show alongside the team’s Sopwith triplane, Royal Aircraft Factory SE5, Junkers CLI and Royal Aircraft Factory BE2 aircraft.

The singer, whose godfather and uncle both served in the RAF, qualified as a commercial pilot in the 1990s and flew Iron Maiden on their 2008-09 world tour in a converted Boeing 747, named Ed Force One after the band’s ghoulish mascot Eddie the Head.

He said he only decided against applying to join the RAF and turned to rock music instead because he was “rubbish at maths and physics”.

Says Dickinson: “I started actually flying at the ripe old age of 30 and 7,000 hours later I finished up as a Boeing 757 captain and 737 instructor. Luckily the aircraft design I fly is still older than me but the gap is closing. In my spare time I sing a bit, own a company that fixes airliners and am trying to bring airships back into the skies... I should have been born in 1898, not 1958. C’est la vie.”

Full information on The Duxford Air Show can be found at this location.