According to Germany's Spiegel, IRON MAIDEN's new-and-improved branded private tour plane is too heavy to land at the airport in Dortmund, Germany ahead of the band's headlining gig at the Rock Im Revier festival on May 27. As a result, the band will land in Düsseldorf a day before the gig and take a bus to the festival site. The Boeing 747 jumbo is named Ed Force One after the band's mascot, Eddie, who has appeared on all of their album covers, and graces the plane's tail. Ed Force One is being piloted on the band's world tour by MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dickinson. The 747 is the world's most recognizable airliner on account of its distinctive hump. With its impressive dimensions of 70.7m (232ft) length, 19.4m (63.6ft) height and a jaw-dropping wing span of 64.4m (211ft) this double-decker aircraft has a range of 13,450km (7,262nm). IRON MAIDEN's world tour, in support of the band's latest album, "The Book Of Souls", kicked off on February 24 in Sunrise, Florida (a suburb of Fort Lauderdale). Support on the trek is coming from THE RAVEN AGE, the band led by IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris's son George Harris. MAIDEN's sixteenth — and first-ever double — studio album, "The Book Of Souls", was released worldwide on September 4, 2015 through Parlophone Records (BMG in the U.S.A). The CD was recorded in Paris, France with producer Kevin "Caveman" Shirley in late 2014, with the finishing touches added last year. IRON MAIDEN announced in May 2015 that touring plans to support the album wouldn't happen until this year to allow Dickinson time to fully recuperate after his successful cancer treatment.
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