This teenage aviator hopes to be the youngest woman to fly solo around the world

When most students take a gap year between high school and university, it’s usually a backpacking adventure or to build up work experience and savings before college.

But Zara Rutherford isn’t most people.

On August 18, the 19-year-old is setting off on the trip of a lifetime: a 32,000-mile journey around the world. More than that, she’ll be flying herself.

“It’s a dream I’ve had for a really long time, but it always seemed unrealistic,” says Rutherford, who holds dual British-Belgian nationality. “When I decided to take a year out before I go to university, I realized, I’ve got all this time – I might as well do something crazy with it.”

Flying in a bespoke Shark ultralight, which she says is the world’s fastest microlight aircraft, Rutherford hopes to set the record for the youngest woman to solo circumnavigate the globe – and inspire more girls and women to pursue careers in science and aviation.

Two months, 52 countries

Rutherford isn’t new to flying. Both her parents are pilots and Rutherford has been learning to fly since she was 14 – although she only started formal flying lessons and got her first license in 2020.

With over 80 flight hours officially logged, and hundreds more uncounted, Rutherford describes her flight experience as “quality over quantity.” She’s gained extra experience helping her parents with their plane “ferrying” service which involves moving aircraft between locations: one trip involved helping her father move a plane from the US to Jordan.

“I’ve already seen a bit of the route, so I know what to expect,” she adds.

Starting in Belgium, Rutherford’s route takes her west through 52 countries, five continents, and crosses the equator twice – first in Tumaco, Colombia, and again in Jambi, Indonesia – which is part of the Guinness World Records’ requirements for an around-the-world flight.

The two-month trip is self-funded, and the teenager has sold her car to help pay for it, as well as seeking out sponsors.

Another cost of the trip is the environmental impact. While Rutherford says the total fuel for her trip is the equivalent to the amount used in 10 minutes by a Boeing 747, she’s spending €600 ($710) on tree-planting projects to offset her carbon footprint.

Rutherford will fly using “visual flight rules” – meaning she has to be able to see clearly where she is going to avoid obstacles and stay on route, so she won’t be flying at night or in poor weather conditions. Stopping for just one or two nights in each location, she plans to meet with schools and youth groups in different countries – which she hopes will bring more visibility to aviation for young girls, to show them “they can really reach for anything they want.”

Women in aviation

Creating awareness of women in aviation is a key part of Rutherford’s mission. According to the International Society of Women Airline Pilots (ISA), just 5.1% of airline pilots around the globe are women — far below many other science, tech, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professions.

“[5%] is such a small number, considering it’s a career where you basically get paid to travel around the world — obviously it’s work, but it’s an amazing career with amazing opportunities,” says Rutherford.

Currently, the youngest female pilot to solo circumnavigate the globe in a single-engine plane is Shaesta Waiz, who was 30 years old at the time. Rutherford points to the gap between the male and female records — Travis Ludlow was just 18 years old when he became the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe solo in July 2021 — as one of the many indicators of the disparity between men and women in aviation.

Visibility is key to showing young women the possibilities, says Rutherford. To help get more women and girls involved in science fields early, Rutherford is supporting two charities on her trip: Girls Who Code, which supports young women entering computer science, and Dreams Soar, a non-profit founded by current record-holder Waiz, that supports women and girls entering STEM fields.

With sponsors including Virgin and Holly Branson (daughter of Richard Branson), Rutherford hopes to raise both funds and awareness for these charities, as well as lessen the “dream gap” and be a role model for young girls, as her mother and father were for her growing up. “I think by seeing other women in aviation, in computer science and STEM it normalizes it a lot more,” she says.

A more accessible aircraft

One of the things making the trip possible is Rutherford’s microlight aircraft. Microlights are small one or two-seat planes used for leisure or personal transport. If she completes her trip, Rutherford will also claim the record for the youngest person to circumnavigate the world solo in a microlight aircraft.

We've come a long way in aviation since Orville Wright took the historic first-ever flight in 1903. He and his brother Wilbur made four flights that day, the longest of which took less than a minute and covered a distance of just 852 feet (260 meters). It wasn't until 1905 that the Wright brothers successfully tried and tested a plane that was viable for transport purposes. Click through to see the planes that have transformed air travel.

The Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" accomplished a lot in its 10-year lifespan. The two-seat biplane was bulk-bought by the US military during World War I and used to train more than 90% of pilots. After the war, its low price helped it find a commercial market, and it became the signature plane of the "barnstorming" era when pilots took to performing dangerous aviation stunts for large crowds. In this picture, stuntwoman Gladys Roy walks on the plane's wings blindfolded.

Possibly the world's most famous plane, the Spirit of St. Louis -- a Ryan NYP monoplane -- made history in 1927 for making the first non-stop solo transatlantic flight. The pilot, Charles Lindbergh, helped design the plane. He was most concerned about making it lightweight, opting for a single-engine design and a wicker chair to lighten the load. The flight from New York to Paris made Lindbergh an instant celebrity and began a cultural obsession with aviation.

The Boeing S-307 Stratoliner heralded an aviation revolution in 1938, for something we now take for granted: a pressurized cabin. The first commercial aircraft equipped with this innovation, the Stratoliner could soar above turbulent weather at an altitude of 20,000 feet. One of the 10 aircraft made was famously bought by multimillionaire Howard Hughes, who converted it into a luxury flying penthouse.

An advanced version of the earlier B-29 (which became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in combat in 1945), the B-50 military bomber had a piston-powered engine -- it was one of the last of its kind because soon after that, aviation transitioned into the jet age. Its big moment came in 1949 when war veteran James Gallagher flew the "Lucky Lady II" on the first non-stop flight around the world. The plane was refueled mid-air four times, and the journey took 94 hours.

Nicknamed the "Jumbo Jet," the Boeing 747-400 changed the face of commercial travel and tourism. Launched in 1969, it more than doubled the seating capacity of commercial aircraft, ushering in an era of mass market air travel. The double-decker plane carried 416 passengers, a record it held for 37 years.

Concorde became the most famous supersonic passenger jet, but the Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 got there first in 1975, four months ahead of its French competitor. Unfortunately, the Soviet plane suffered many technical failures, including two fatal crashes, over its short lifespan. It only completed 55 return flights before it was relegated to cargo in 1978. The government-funded program was discontinued just five years later.

Flying at twice the speed of sound, Concorde took its inaugural flight with passengers in 1976. A flight from London to New York took just three and half hours, but the noise and supersonic boom created by the aircraft meant it could only be used on very limited routes. Ultimately, the cost grounded these record-breaking planes in 2003.

The 1983 Boeing 747-300 incorporated many cosmetic changes to the classic Boeing aircraft, including increased passenger capacity. However, the most important upgrade was not visible. The 747-300's engine reduced fuel burn by 25% per passenger. Fuel efficiency has become a big concern as the climate crisis intensifies: today, airlines are exploring formation flying and a V-shaped plane to improve fuel efficiency.

Part-plane, part-spacecraft, the privately funded SpaceShipOne used rocket fuel to send humans to space. It made history in 2004 with the first manned suborbital flight, rocketing 69.6 miles above the Earth's surface, which snagged the $10 million Ansari X Prize. The aircraft was retired the following year, but SpaceShipTwo is now being developed by Virgin Galactic for space tourism.

After the success of the first solar-powered plane in 2009, the Solar Impulse 2 took off from Abu Dhabi in March 2015 on the first solar-powered flight to circumnavigate the world. With a total of 500 flight hours, the plane covered 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers). The plane's 48-hour final leg, from Cairo back to Abu Dhabi, took place in July 2016.

In December 2019, Vancouver-based seaplane company Harbour Air made history with the first all-electric commercial aircraft flight. The de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver seaplane, which was first flown in 1947, was retrofitted with a 750 horsepower magni500 electric engine from magniX.

magniX made headlines again in June 2020 when AeroTEC's nine-seater eCaravan -- powered by the magni500 electric propulsion system -- became the largest all-electric commercial aircraft to fly to date.

On September 24th 2020, ZeroAvia flew the world's largest hydrogen-powered aircraft at Cranfield Airport in England, showing the possibilities of hydrogen fuel in the future of aviation.

14 aircraft that changed the way we fly

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On loan from Shark Aero, one of her sponsors for the trip, the Shark Ultralight Rutherford will fly in has been customized for her needs, including a second radio, satellite communications which will allow her to call anyone at any time during the flight, and an additional fuel tank where the second passenger seat would usually be, which will add over 1,000 kilometers to her flight range.

While the plane is “perfectly capable” of making the trip without these modifications, Zara’s father Sam Rutherford says these changes have given both him and Zara an extra sense of security.

“It is the fastest microlight in the world, with a whole raft of safety systems and solutions as well,” he says.

Microlights are a more accessible option for potential aviators, says Zara Rutherford. She hopes that her trip will also highlight the possibilities of microlight aircraft for beginner aviators, and inspire more young women and girls to try flying.

“It’s an easy thing to say, but just go for it,” she says. “If you don’t try and see how high you can fly, then you’ll never know.”