Fly Zolo At the time of going to print due to weather delays and visa expiry, Zara Rutherford (HA 2021) will be half way through an incredible adventure. Even though she just graduated from St Swithun’s this summer, she has already enbarked on the breath-taking challenge to become the youngest woman to fly solo around the world!
Zara in training
Zara is a 19 year-old Belgian, with an English father and Belgian mother who are both pilots. Her younger brother is also a qualified pilot. She holds dual nationality and completed her education in Belgium and England, joining St Swithun’s when she was 14. She specialised in mathematics, further mathematics, economics and physics at school and is hoping to become an astronaut. Before she left, Zara kindly gave us the answer to some of the many questions we had… Why take on this challenge? At first, I was planning to fly around the world as an adventure during my gap year, not realising I would become the youngest woman to do so if I achieved it. It was only when I started researching more that I noticed I could be the first Belgian and the youngest woman to solo circumnavigate the globe. I’m hoping to get more girls interested in aviation. With this in mind I am supporting two non-profits that encourage girls and young women into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The non-profits are Dreams Soar and Girls Who Code. Dreams Soar aims to inspire women and girls to achieve their dreams and enter STEM fields of study and careers and Girls Who Code aims to support and increase the number of women in computer science by equipping young women with the necessary computing skills to pursue 21st century opportunities. What route are you taking? The route has been chosen to fulfil Guinness World Records’ requirements to be an ‘around the world flight’. It currently takes in 52 countries and crosses the equator twice to satisfy the ‘two antipodal’ requirements for an around the world flight. Antipodals are points perfectly opposite to each other on the earth (if you were to dig vertically down from where you are now, it’s where you would pop out on the other side). My antipodals are small towns: Tumaco in Colombia (just above the equator) and Jambi, Indonesia (just below the equator). I am hoping that they will ‘twin’ as a result of my visits.
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OGA Chain 2021
