Iron Maiden's new plane, a 747 they've dubbed Ed Force One, is ready to take the band on tour.

As previously reported, the new craft is an upgrade over previous Ed Force Ones flown by the group; in fact, singer Bruce Dickinson, who doubles as the band's pilot, had to go through training to qualify to fly it. Maiden unveiled their latest plane last summer, with Dickinson explaining their reasons for making the jump to a larger jet.

"The greatest benefit of traveling in a 747 is that, because of its colossal size and freight capacity we can carry our stage production and all our stage equipment and desks in the cargo hold without having to make any of the immense structural modifications needed to do this on the previous 757, the extent of which fans will have noted on the Flight 666 DVD," said Dickinson. "All we will need to do is ‘paint’ it and move a few seats around, with the added advantage that there is much more room for band and crew – our Krew can almost get a row of seats each to catch up on sleep on the flights!"

With all the prep work out of the way and Dickinson's training finished, Ed Force One is now ready to fly — and the band gave fans a sneak peek at the plane in action when they posted video of it touching down at Cardiff Airport in Wales yesterday. You can watch the footage, which debuted via Periscope stream, above. There's also a photo gallery on the band's Facebook page.

The plane will be pressed into action during the first couple of legs of the band's 2016 world tour, which is currently booked through early August. Once they settle into a stretch of European dates in mid-June, however, Ed gets a break; as the band explained, "after the Swedish show at Gothenburg Ullvei Stadium on June 17th, we'll be reverting to our traditional truck and bus touring methods as logistically this makes much more sense considering the lesser distances involved and airport parameters."

Iron Maiden Albums Ranked Worst to Best

More From 94.5 KATS