Heavy Metal Capitalist: Iron Maiden Singer Bruce Dickinson Invests in ‘World’s Biggest Aircraft’

In January 2013, Anne Jolis of The Wall
Street Journal interviewed Iron Maiden frontman Bruce
Dickinson about his side career as a businessman involved in
Britain’s “highly regulated” airline industry. That experience,

he explained, helped open his eyes to the risks of
overregulation. “Civil servants, on some level, are almost
institutionally prejudiced against entrepreneurial activity and
risk,” Dickinson declared.

Writing today at Wired.com, Alexander George brings word of
Dickinson’s latest entrepreneurial adventure, investing in the
“world’s biggest aircraft.”
Here’s the story:

It looks like a sketch from Howard Hughes’ notebooks, but this
massive air ship is real, and currently the biggest aircraft ever
produced. It can also be remote-controlled and land on water. And
the lead singer of Iron Maiden is an investor.

The HAV 304 “Airlander” is just over 300 feet long. That’s
nearly 60 feet longer than a Boeing 747, 80 feet longer than the
Spruce Goose, and 30 feet longer than the Antonov An-225, the
previous title-holder for the world’s largest aircraft.

The flying leviathan was produced by British aeronautics firm
Hybrid Air Vehicles, and it’s being considered for commercial and
rescue applications–at around $100 million each.