In the music industry the term is a ‘stadium-filler’, the ability of a performer or band to fill a large sports stadium with fans for a concert.
The world’s largest aircraft, the Antonov An-225 Mriya, certainly proved itself to be a stadium-filler when an estimated 20,000 people lined the fence at Perth Airport to see it touch down at the start of its first visit to Australia on Sunday.
And while there it would cross paths with an undisputed stadium-filler of the music world, heavy metal band Iron Maiden, which departed Perth later on Sunday aboard its own specially-painted chartered Boeing 747-400, Ed Force One.
German journalist Grit Hofmann, who travelled to Perth onboard the An-225, tweeted the below short video of the Iron Maiden 747 taxiing past the Antonov ahead of its departure to Cape Town, South Africa.
#An225 meets other celebrities in #Perth: @IronMaiden @dw_business @dw_wirtschaft pic.twitter.com/K2c8r9V8cH
— Grit Hofmann (@grit_hofmann) May 15, 2016
Ed Force One departed Perth while preparations to unload the An-225, which had brought a 117-tonne generator (which measured 8.80-metres long, 3.50-metres wide and 3.20-metres high) to Perth, were underway. The generator was unloaded into the night on Sunday before being trucked to the Collie alumina refinery on Monday.
“Fifty-five people were involved in the unloading. It’s not a simple task. It took months of planning,” DB Schenker director of projects for Australia and New Zealand Frank Vogel told the ABC.
Mission accomplished. Alumina refinery got the generator brought by #An225. After 20 weeks of wait. @dw_business pic.twitter.com/aSaiu1bUwZ
— Grit Hofmann (@grit_hofmann) May 16, 2016
The An-225 then departed Perth under the cover of darkness on Tuesday morning, taking off at 0559 bound for Dubai en route to Italy carrying a 25 tonne rotor.
