Flying Heavy Metal was a 5-part British television series produced by Ricochet

Ricochet (TV Production Company)

Ricochet, part of the Shed Media Group, is an independent television production company that produces factual and entertainment programmes for broadcast by networks in both the UK and US.Ricochet joined the Shed Media Group in 2005.-Current Productions:...

 and broadcast in the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and Europe on the Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...

 and subsequently repeated on Discovery Wings

Discovery Wings

Discovery Wings was an American and British TV channel devoted to documentaries regarding aircraft and as a brand extension of Wings, a staple documentary program of the Discovery Channel throughout the 1990s...

 in the UK. It was presented by commercial Boeing 757

Boeing 757

The Boeing 757 is a mid-size, narrow-body twin-engine jet airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Passenger versions of the twinjet have a capacity of 186 to 289 persons and a maximum range of , depending on variant and cabin configuration...

 pilot

Aviator

An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...

 and Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from Leyton in east London, formed in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. Since their inception, the band's discography has grown to include a total of thirty-six albums: fifteen studio albums; eleven live albums; four EPs; and six...

 frontman, Bruce Dickinson

Bruce Dickinson

Paul Bruce Dickinson is an English singer, songwriter, airline pilot, fencer, broadcaster, author, screenwriter, actor and marketing director, best known as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden....

.

In the series, Bruce looked at, and often flew, a number of aircraft

Aircraft

An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...

 from across the history of commercial aviation. There were some quite surprising aerobatics done in rather large aircraft.

Flying Heavy Metal is now repeated on the new channel from Discovery Networks UK called Discovery Turbo.

Programme credits

Series Producer - James Bates

Producer - Dan Peirson

Assistant Producer - Greg Chivers

Production Manager - Amanda Rohan

External links

• Flying Heavy Metal at discoverychannel.co.uk