Once a commercial jet reaches the end of its life, it might be stripped down for parts, turned into an enormous firefighting plane or, if it’s been owned by an iconic rock band, it could be chopped into tiny pieces and turned into thousands of novelty keychains.
That’s exactly what happened to an enormous Boeing 747 aircraft that was operated by British rock band Iron Maiden in 2016, reports CNN. The jet was commissioned by the band for its Book of Souls world tour, which traveled to 36 countries. The enormous jet was customized by the band with a white livery and tail design that showed off its zombie-like mascot, called Eddie. When the plane was ready to retire, its white bodywork was stripped away and chopped up into 12,000 special keychains.
Ed Force One
The Boeing 747 was nicknamed Ed Force One and flew with Iron Maiden until the tour wrapped in 2017. Once the tour was over and the plane was no longer needed, its internals were stripped out before the fuselage of the 747 was sent to German company Aviationtag, which upcycles decommissioned planes into collectible tags and tokens.
The company then set about cutting off huge sections of bodywork, as you can see in the clip above, which were then used to make the keychains. The curved sections of fuselage were flattened by Aviationtag, before being cut into thin strips that were then stamped into smaller pieces. In total, 12,000 tags were cut out of sections of Ed Force One, each etched with an image of the plane, its name and the tail number.
Yours for just €66.66
The tags measure about 1.5 by 3.5 inches, and in addition to the technical details about the aircraft up front they also have an engraving of Eddie on the rear. They look pretty slick and are available to buy on Aviationtag’s website right now.
Each of the 12,000 Ed Force One tags will set you back €66.66, which is a nod to the band’s song “The Number of the Beast.” Obviously, that reference is lost on anyone shopping in dollars, as they’re about $73 for regular old Americans.
The tags are almost sold out, which is weird considering just how massive a 747 is. That’s reportedly on purpose, however, as CNN explains that there’s enough metal on a Jumbo to make more than 100,000 tags, but Aviationtags said it prefers “smaller, exclusive editions.”
Captain Dickinson, at your service
As well as being the jet to fly Iron Maiden and all its kit to 117 shows on six continents, the Jumbo was also the first 747 that was flown by the band’s vocalist, Bruce Dickinson.
Dickinson qualified as a pilot in the early 90s and cut his teeth flying Boeing 737 and 757 aircraft, even working as a commercial pilot for defunct Icelandic airline Astraeus. He previously flew the band’s old jet, a 757, and had to learn to fly the Jumbo ahead of the 2016 world tour, reports Business Jet.
The Iron Maiden frontman isn’t the only famous pilot out there. Country star Tim McGraw can also reportedly fly and plane and new wave singer Gary Newman has a pilots license, imagine that.
