A British-Belgian teenager today became the youngest woman to travel the world alone and the first person to do so for five months flying a super-light aircraft, the Shark, and completing an Odyssey covering five continents.
Zara Rutherford, 19, landed at Belgium’s Kortrijk-Wevelgem Airport, covering 51,000 kilometers, flying over 52 countries since taking off on August 18 with the Shark, the fastest aircraft of its kind in the world.
“I would not do it again,” she admitted after her penultimate stop in a German village on Wednesday.
“There were incredible moments, but there were also moments when I was afraid for my life,” she added, describing them as favorite places she flew over during her trip to New York and an active volcano in Iceland.
After North and South America, Rutherford was trapped in Alaska for a month due to weather conditions and visa delays.
A storm forced her to make a long stop in the Russian Far East before traveling to South Asia, the Middle East and back to Europe.
To meet the criteria for air travel around the world, Rutherford reached two points on the planet, one opposite the other: Jabbi in Indonesia and Toumaco in Colombia.
Rutherford breaks the record held by Afghan-American Saesta Wise, who completed her journey at the age of 30 in 2017.
The youngest man to hold this record is the American Mason Andrews, who scored it at the age of 18, in 2018.
Rutherford also became the first Belgian to travel the world alone on a single-engine aircraft.
She got a pilot’s license in 2020 after training with her father from the age of 14. Today he wants to study engineering at an American or British university since September.
The 19-year-old dreams of becoming an astronaut and hopes her trip will encourage other women in the fields of science, technology and aviation.
“Boys learn through games, street names, history lessons and movies that they can become scientists, astronauts, CEOs or presidents. Girls are often encouraged to be beautiful, kind, helpful, sweet. “I want to show my flight to young women that they can be bold, ambitious and make their dreams come true,” she wrote on her website.
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