Yesterday, Zara Rutherford reached Quibdó, Colombia, the first antipodal point in her quest to be the youngest woman in history to fly solo around the world in a small aircraft. Zara is 19 years old and on the 18th of August she set off from Belgium on her Guinness attempt to circumnavigate the globe. With this flight she wants to encourage girls and young women to pursue their dreams. She also wants to reduce the gender gap in aviation as well as in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

The Guinness World Record guidelines require people circumnavigating the globe to pass through two approximate antipodal points, i.e. two locations on opposite geographical sides of the Earth. Zara chose to pass through Quibdó, Colombia and Jakarta, Indonesia, where she plans to arrive mid-October. So far she has already crossed the Atlantic, stopped in Iceland and Greenland, flown through Canada, the east coast of the USA and South through the Caribbean to Colombia. Next she will head North via Alaska to Russia, China, Indonesia, India and via the Middle East back to Belgium, where she plans to arrive early November.

Zara’s aim is to inspire girls and young women. “Only 5% of commercial pilots and 15% of computer scientists are women. In both areas – aviation and STEM – the gender gap is huge. It is in fact a dream gap as our dreams are shaped from early childhood through the fairy tales and role models we are exposed to. Boys learn through toys, street names, history classes and movies that they can be scientists, astronauts, CEO’s or presidents. Girls are often encouraged to be beautiful, kind, helpful and sweet. With my flight I want to show young women that they can be bold, ambitious and make their dreams come true,” - says Zara Rutherford.

The youngest man to have flown solo around the world, Travis Ludlow, was 18 years old. The youngest woman, Shaesta Waiz, was 30 at the time of her flight. With this flight Zara hopes to reduce this gender gap by more than a decade.