Teenage pilot's bid to become youngest woman to fly around world solo visits Aberdeen and Wick
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A teenager who is aiming to be the youngest woman ever to fly around the world solo has begun her journey and paid a stop off in Aberdeen and Wick as her quest took her onwards to Iceland.
Zara Rutherford, 19, left Belgium on Wednesday on a trip which will covers five continents and sees landings in 52 countries.
If all goes to plan her trip should end early in November, and according to her website, https://flyzolo.comif completed will make her the youngest woman to circumnavigate the globe solo, and the youngest person to do so in a microlight aircraft.
Miss Rutherford has both British and Belgian nationality and is following in the footsteps of her parents, who are both pilots.
She studied at St Swithun’s School, Winchester, Hampshire, and the solo trip is being undertaken before she goes to university, with the long-term ambition of becoming an astronaut.
Miss Rutherford is flying a Shark Ultralight, the world’s fastest light sport aircraft, for the self-funded record attempt, with it modified to remove the additional seat and an extra fuel tank installed in its place.
Having landed at Popam airfied in Hampshire, she headed north to Aberdeen on Wednesday before heading to Wick on Thursday morning and onwards to Reykjavik on Thursday evening.
Her next leg undertaken today sees two days of travel across Greenland before moving onto Canada and the USA next week
The full route will take her through the UK, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, the US and Latin America to Colombia, then back north via Alaska to Russia, China, Indonesia, India and the Middle East before ending in Belgium.
The current female record holder is American Shaesta Waiz, who was 30 at the time of her circumnavigation in 2017, while the youngest male record-holder was 18 years old.
To see her full route and progress visit https://flyzolo.com/route/
