Mack Rutherford follows his sister Zara becoming the youngest person in history to circumnavigate the globe solo

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

SHARK.AERO does not join the MackSolo project

SHARK.AERO was a proud partner of Mack’s sister Zara Rutherford in her attempt to become the youngest woman to fly around the world solo, provided Zara with a Shark airplane and a 24/7 technical support. Despite Mack choosing Shark aircraft and buying himself a second hand one, we as a company decided not to become partners of the MackSolo project for the following reasons.

1. After the start of the war in Ukraine, as a matter of principle we refuse to be part of any project which involves Russia or entry into Russian airspace. Avoiding Russia would mean long legs over the sea. Mack’s Shark has only 100l integrated fuel tanks and even with an additional fuel bag in the back seat we see the journey with Mack’s Shark configuration as an unnecessary risk.
2. Mack is no doubt a skilled pilot. However, we do not feel comfortable pushing the age limit to the lowest possible point for journeys where a certain level of risk cannot be avoided. As a company we therefore adopted a policy to support such ambitious endeavours only by adult pilots older than 18 years.

Naturally, SHARK.AERO wishes Mack Rutherford a safe journey and a success in his attempt to become the youngest pilot in history to solo circumnavigate the globe.

SHARK is flying around the world

We are excited to support Zara Rutherford in her attempt to become the youngest woman to fly solo around the world.

FLY ZOLO

www.flyzolo.com

Follow the progress of Zara's epic journey on social media:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/FlyZolo
Instagram: www.instagram.com/fly.zolo/



Photo credit: Andrés Meneses