CARDINGTON, BEDFORDSHIRE, UNITED KINGDOM - IRON MAIDEN lead singer Bruce Dickinson, platinum and gold records artist, environmentalist, multi-engine 757 pilot, and fencing champion, is making his extraordinary and enthusiastic voice heard in his newest role, World Air League Advisory Director. The World Air League is producing the World Sky Race, the historic first race of airships to circle Planet Earth.

As the newest member of the World Air League Advisory Directors, Bruce joins Bertrand Piccard, Kathryn Sullivan, Erik Lindbergh, Sylvia Earle, Zahi Hawass, Mary Ellen Weber and Jean-Michel Jarre. (https://www.worldskyrace.com/advisorycouncil.html) His new role includes being the face of the United Kingdom Airship Team forming to compete in the World Sky Race.

The World Sky Race Sept 2024 – May 2025 will produce a competitive global aerial tournament, challenging airships from around the world to race around the world in a series of 16 fixed course legs. Each leg will begin and finish at a Summit City. Starting on London’s Greenwich Prime Meridian, the Race tour will circumnavigate the globe and end by crossing the French Prime Meridian at the Versailles Palace. Included on the route are Big Ben, Roman Coliseum, Great Pyramids, Taj Mahal, Mt. Fuji, Golden Gate Bridge, Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower. Representing nations and fans, these aerial gladiators in their gigantic flying machines will joust for global glory and the $5 million World Sky Race Prize.

As a celebration of each Summit City, putting them on the map as a destination, there will be a global televised broadcast of a local Sky Cup. The Sky Cups will be aerial regattas where the airship teams duel for champion rights, including keys to the city. The local monuments and scenic vistas will be the stages for dramatic, tight, up-close, nose-to-nose, gripping aerial combatants, sumo wrestlers in the sky.

Celebrating Humanity, the Race is more than just a Race. Between the Summit Cities, the Race route will be fixed that the airship teams must fly over selected UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the iconic monuments of the centuries of mankind’s achievements. Elevating our shared history to be included in the Race drama, these sites will be the beacons charting the Race map.

Acting on climate change, the Race will inspire inventors to improve the green efficiencies that are intrinsic to airships. The physics are simple. Airships are buoyant and float. Hence, airships do not consume energy to get into the air. The energy equation for airplanes is weighted down that they must guzzle fuel just to get into and then more to keep staying in the air. The Race will incubate and modernize lighter-than-air aviation technology creating a path for adapting to climate change.

“Bruce is an explorer. His interests are multifaceted. As a first of a kind that is not boxed in by its past, any traditions, or ordinary expectations, the creative essence of the Race is organic and additive and energy. Bruce, his purity of essence is that of a lightning thunderbolt. Like it, he grows as he goes, Crescit Eundo. With the mission of the Race, he will illuminate and motivate and enthrall his fans with his unique kaleidoscope of talents. The World Sky Race is a Race for the Planet. The World Sky Race is a Race for Humanity. We are honored that Bruce will add his voice to our global mission,” said Don Hartsell, World Air League Commissioner welcoming Bruce Dickinson as an Advisory Director for the World Air League.

“The World Sky Race is serious fun. It is audacious, big, yet simple. It is a tour of the World. Frankly, that is what I do in my day job. The World Sky Race will move the discussion and development of lighter-than-air from the 1920’s and 30’s, which was then considered the golden age of airships, to today, where we need it now for adapting to climate change. As one of the means to disrupt our dependency on burning fossil fuels and at the same time causing less environmental destruction, the World Sky Race takes aviation engineering successes from our past and modernizes them for safety and efficiency. This is real action, not just talk and the usual best wishes. By doing this, we can be connected globally by greener, cleaner air transport. I am pleased to be in a project that will change and improve our living on Planet Earth. And, we are going to have some real serious fun doing it,” said Bruce Dickinson in accepting his Advisory Board position.