PHOTOS: 17 year old pilot becomes the youngest person to fly solo around the world in a small aircraft

Mack Rutherford, a 17-year-old teen, is the youngest person to fly solo around the world in a small plane, glamsquad reports.

 

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Mack Rutherford arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria, after a five-month journey that took him through 52 countries.

 

The journey took him through Europe, Asia, Africa, and the United States, as well as across two oceans, with his plane landing in Wick, Scotland, and departing from London’s Biggin Hill Airport earlier this week.

 

Mack, a British-Belgian, encountered sandstorms in Sudan and spent the night on an uninhabited Pacific island along the way.

 

Mack encouraged others to “follow your dreams, no matter how old you are” after completing the feat on Wednesday, August 24.

“Work hard and keep moving forward to achieve your objectives,” he added.

The previous record holder for solo flight was British pilot Travis Ludlow, who was 18 at the time of his journey last year.

 

Zara, Mark’s elder sister, is the world’s youngest woman to fly solo around the world.

She finished her own journey in January of this year and revealed that she had “given him route advice” and traveled to meet Mack as he returned to his starting point.

 

Mack comes from an aviator family. On March 23, he left the Bulgarian capital, encountering extreme heat in Dubai and unexpected airport closures in India.

 

Mark also claimed to have slept in a shed beside a runway on an uninhabited Pacific Ocean island after a “hairy moment” passing through rain and low cloud.

Mack described some of the beautiful places he was able to fly past in an earlier interview with CNN while he was halfway through his journey, from wildlife in Kenyan national parks to the New York City skyline.

 

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He added that always having “something I can look at” helped him maintain focus during the low-altitude flights, which could last up to 11 hours.

 

When asked about his future plans, Mack stated: “I intend to continue flying. I’m considering joining the air force, but I’m not entirely certain.

 

“After I finish this, I just have to concentrate on school and try to catch up as much as I can.”

He has now broken two Guinness World Records, becoming the youngest person to fly solo around the world and the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe in a microlight plane.

The adolescent piloted a Shark, a high-performance ultralight aircraft capable of reaching speeds of up to 186mph (300km/h).

Zara, his sister, stated that she was “constantly” attempting to contact and assist her brother while he was in the air.

“Every day, our parents called him, and I listened in on their conversations.

 

“I gave him route and flight advice so that I could be useful to him.”

 

Mack has previously stated that he has wanted to be a pilot since the age of three, and he accomplished this goal in September 2020 when he qualified for his license at the age of fifteen.

 

His father, Sam Rutherford, is a ferry pilot, and his mother, Beatrice, is a private pilot.

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