Empire of the Clouds story of the R101 airship, which crashed on its maiden voyage in northern France on 5 October 1930. The song was written entirely by the band's lead vocalist, Bruce Dickinson, who initially intended it to be about "World War I fighter airplanes;" Dickinson abandoned the idea after using the same theme for the song "Death or Glory," also from "The Book of Souls". At the time of recording, Dickinson was reading "a big, sort of encyclopedic crash report" of the R101, entitled "To Ride the Storm", which gave him the idea for the song's eventual subject. Dickinson describes it as
R101 (South Africa) heading south) for about 1 Km up to the junction with the R513 East (Sefako Makgatho Drive, Formerly Zambezi Drive), where it becomes 1 road again to the north. Going North, It intersects with the R566 Road At Onderstepoort before crossing the N4 Platinum Highway. The R101, The R566 And The M1 Form A Ring-Road Around Annlin West (Separating Pretoria North and Wonderboom Airport). After Crossing The N4, the R101 becomes Old Warmbaths Road and follows the Apies River North-North-East for 27 Km, through Pyramid, to Hammanskraal. 6 Km North of Hammanskraal, just before Carousel Hotel, the R101 enters the