Youngest person to circumnavigate the world by microlight solo (female)

Youngest person to circumnavigate the world by microlight solo (female)
Who
Zara Rutherford
What
19:199 year(s):day(s)
Where
Belgium (Kortrijk)
When

The youngest person to circumnavigate the world by microlight solo is 19 years 199 days, achieved by Zara Rutherford (Belgium, b. 5 July 2002), on 20 January 2022.


Zara was born into a family of aviators and took on this challenge to encourage girls and young women to pursue their dreams and to promote aviation and STEM-related careers for women. She lists her greatest inspirations as Lillian Bland, Bessie Coleman, Valentina Tereshkova and Amelia Earhart.

Zara set off on 18 August 2021 in her Shark UL from Kortrijk, Belgium and headed West. She hit two antipodal points during her journey in Colombia and Indonesia and travelled well over 50,000 km (24,854 mi).

In completing the journey, she also became the youngest person to circumnavigate the world by aircraft solo (female).