SOFIA – A Belgian-British teenager became the youngest person (male) to fly around the world solo in a small aircraft.
The 17-year-old has etched his name in record books as the passionate aviator landed in Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia, on Wednesday where he was welcomed by his family members and a huge crowd.
The teen pilot has bagged two Guinness World Records as Rutherford has also become the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe in a microlight plane.
He took the age record from a British pilot, Travis Ludlow, who completed the solo global flight at age 18 while the previous record for flight in ultralight plane was held by his sister, Zara, who completed his trip at age 19.
The teen aviator had departed from Sofia on 23 March 2022, six months prior, to pursue his dream of achieving the world record. The journey took Rutherford through 52 countries and five continents while he crossed the equator twice.
Just like the previous record holders, Mack faced the challenge completely alone.
He could only travel by daylight, and the limited size of his aircraft forced him to occasionally land whenever the weather conditions got too critical.
The 17-year-old travelled for a total of six months, adjusting to last-minute route changes and several challenges, and also got to meet several people across the globe whenever he landed, said GWR in its blog.
During his circumnavigation, Travis surpassed the minimum distance required to break the world record (24,540 miles) when he set a personal milestone and flew to Gibraltar, on 9 July.
Zara Rutherford: Meet the youngest woman who just set the world record for solo global flight
