Legends of metal touch down in style

It wasn't just any old airport touch-down from a well-known rock band.

This was British heavy metal blasters Iron Maiden — and they were flying their own chartered plane, Ed Force One.

Lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson was behind the controls when the band's customised Boeing 757 touched down at Sydney Airport today.

Adoring fans waited up to six hours to see the band hit the tarmac. When he's not "rocking out" to thousands of fans, Dickinson uses his pilot's licence to hit the skies — including flying his fellow Iron Maiden band members to gigs.

"Nobody has ever done this," he said.

"The Stones don't go travelling with their own crew and they certainly don't fly on the freighters that fly their gear. This is everything all rolled up into one."

Dickinson said he flies for British-based Astraeus Airlines in his "spare time".

Ed Force One carries up to 72 people, including band members, their families and crew, and stores up to 10 tonnes of freight.

The plane will clock up almost 100,000 km as Iron Maiden flies to 21 cities in 10 countries as part of its 45-day world tour.

Band manager Rod Smallwood said the plane makes it possible for the band to maintain a tight schedule.

"Four major stadium shows in a week in different countries," he said. "With those distances, it would be impossible to do (without the band's own plane)," he said.

One die-hard fan member, who waited hours outside Sydney Airport for a glimpse of the band, said he had been waiting 23 years to see Iron Maiden in concert.

"I'm more excited than when I had me kids to be honest, and the missus hates it, she absolutely hates it," the fan said.

"But I get to choose this — I didn't get to choose the kids."

Iron Maiden, which formed in 1975, perform at Sydney's Acer Arena on Saturday and Sunday night. Tickets for the first show sold out in less than an hour, prompting the band to hold a second show.