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
1934 Air France Wibault 282T crash 1934 Air France Wibault 282T crash The 1934 Air France Wibault 282T crash occurred on 9 May 1934 when Wibault 282T-12 F-AMHY of Air France crashed into the English Channel off Dungeness, Kent, United Kingdom while operating an international scheduled passenger flight from Le Bourget, Paris, France to Croydon, Surrey, United Kingdom. All six people on board were killed. The accident aircraft was Wibault 282T-12 F-AMHP, c/n 8. The aircraft had entered service with Air Union on 21 August 1933, passing to Air France on formation. The aircraft was operating a scheduled international passenger flight from Le Bourget, Paris, France