Today, 24 August 2022, Mack Rutherford, a 17-year-old British-Belgian pilot, completed his mission and became the youngest person in history who has flown solo around the world. His journey lasted 5 months and 1 day.
We are very happy that he has had a safe journey and extremely pleased that Mack decided to avoid the Russian airspace, which is the most common route when circumnavigating the globe. Being Ukraine's neighbour we feel very strongly about the war and oppose it by all means possible.
As Mack bought himself a second-hand Shark from one of our Danish customers we offered to provide him with technical support during his journey which he hasn't needed as Shark has proven once again it's amazing performance, endurance and reliability.
Shark ranks among the fastest aircraft in its category and has held world speed records for over 10 years. It reaches a maximum speed of 300 km/h, has a range of 2000 km and consumes 7 litres of gasoline per 100 km. SHARK.AERO has already produced and delivered more than 120 aircraft to 22 countries.
Fact sheet about Mack’s journey
- World records broken: the youngest person to fly solo around the world, the youngest person to fly solo around the world in a microlight aircraft
- Age at time of record: 17 years, 2 months and 2 days/current record holder, Travis Ludlow: 18 years and 5 months (150 days) - Mack breaks the record by approx 1 year and 3 months
- Total distance: 29225nm (54124km)
- Total time in the air: 221 hours
- Total time of circumnavigation: 142 days - 5 months and 1 day / Zara his sister did it in 5 months and 2 days
- Takeoffs/landings: 68
- Longest flight: 10 hours Japan-USA
- Longest flight over water: 10 hours Japan-USA
- Highest altitude: 12500ft Mexico
- Continents visited: 4
- Countries visited: 30
- Highest temperature: +48C
- Lowest temperature: -12C