On Monday 12 July, Travis Ludlow an 18-year old from Buckinghamshire, England became the youngest person to fly solo around the world in a single-engine aircraft. He completed the journey in 44 days, having set off on May 29. If this wasn’t impressive enough, Travis also managed to beat the current Guinness World Record in the process.
The previous record belonged to Mason Andrews from Louisiana in the USA who flew around the world in 76 days back in 2018 at the age of 18 years and 163 days. At the time of his flight, Travis was 18 years and 150 days old and so while it was close, he nevertheless managed to secure the new record.
Talking about his own trip, Mason Andrews told the BBC that “ It’s really the most dangerous and difficult thing you could do in a single-engine airplane.”
“Travis has a bright future ahead of him.
“ World records are made to be broken. I had the record. I don’t get anything by continuing to hold the record so I am more than willing to pass the torch on to the next generation.”
The original plan was that Travis would take off for his flight on 1 June 2020. At this time he would have been aged 17 and 110 days, beating the world record by nearly a year. However, unfortunately, as with many things over the past year, COVID-19 brought this plan to a grinding halt.
In his Cessna 172 R Diesel aircraft, Travis has traveled a total of 26,675 miles and stopped 63 times on 4 continents during his world record flight. He took 12 rest days during the journey and flew a collected total of 235 hours, which averages at around 840 miles a day.
Moving forward to the present day thanks to the strict COVID guidelines and being double vaccinated Travis was able to make the journey this year allowing him to still beat the record.
Travis traveled east, first flying over Europe, Russia, and Alaska. He then flew all over the USA before traveling from Miami to Canada. He then crossed the Atlantic, via Greenland before moving on from Iceland to Ireland. Travis finally proceeded to fly from Spain to Gibraltar, through Morocco and Algeria, and back via Europe.
Arriving back at Booker/Wycombe Airpark in Buckinghamshire, Travis received his Guinness World Record Certificate upon landing.
Having already fulfilled his dream at the young age of 18, Travis’s next goal is to break the record for flying solo around the world in an electric aircraft. This is some seriously impressive stuff and TrillMag wishes him great success in his next venture.
