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Record-holding Sherborne student Mack is flying high

At just 16, Mack Rutherford set out on an ambitious but oddly old-fashioned adventure – to fly around the world by himself. Rachael Rowe reports

Mack Rutherford at Henstridge Airfield

Sherborne School student Mack Rutherford recently became the youngest person to fly solo around the world, setting a new Guinness World Record. To celebrate the achievement, Sherborne School got ready to become an international airport for one morning in October. The groundsmen marked a 300-metre landing strip with cones, so that Mack could land at the school playing fields en route to his home in Belgium for half term. But the weather intervened ...

Around the world in 155 days

His round-the-world journey took five months, flying 30,000 miles through 30 countries – alone. He left from Sofia in Bulgaria on 23rd March 2022 in his high performance ultralight Shark and celebrated his 17th birthday on the plane. When he landed back in Sofia on 24th August, Mack had four world records to his name. He is the youngest person to circumnavigate the world by: aircraft solo; aircraft solo (male); microlight solo (male); microlight solo. Mack’s epic adventure had numerous setbacks, including spending a night on an uninhabited island, an aircraft electrical failure, a monsoonsoaked fuel tank and a solar panel system failure.

Sherborne support crew

Sherborne School governor George Marsh recalls the excitement at the school when the news of Mack’s achievement came through: ‘I was there on the night they told his House. There was a stunned silence and then a huge cheer!’ Mack’s friends waited in the drizzle at the school for his plane to touch down. ‘We had really missed him,’ says Richard Xu. ‘We had a map in the House so we could see where he was every day.’ Another friend, Will Frost, has flown with Mack before. ‘He and his sister flew from Belgium to Popham Airfield and picked me up, then we flew to Henstridge – we got a taxi back to school.’ Mack’s planned landing at the school in October was scuppered by the poor weather. The disappointed pupils were encouraged back to their

Nothing happens by accident

Mack is the fifth generation of flyers in his family, so he naturally grew up with planes. His sister holds the world record for the youngest female flying around the world at age 19. ‘I started properly learning to fly at 14 and got my licence at 15. But I have always flown.’ Planning a journey like this takes significant effort. So how did it all start? ‘When I got my licence I knew I wanted to do something special. My sister became the youngest woman to fly solo around the world and I thought: “that’s an amazing thing” – and knew I wanted to do something similar.’ The 30,000 mile journey included Sudan, Madagascar and the Yemeni island of Socotra, ending back in Sofia, Bulgaria. ‘We made a set route to begin with but over time that route changed completely. We did a lot of planning beforehand but some has to be done in the countries themselves because

Mack Rutherford and his high performance ultralight Shark. Image: Josie Sturgess-Mills of permits and visas. They often need to be done nearer to when you arrive. I got stuck for a month and a half in Crete and Dubai due to paperwork.’ Did any country in particular impress him? ‘The thing is, they are so different. You can’t really compare Greenland ice caps to the Sahara! They were all amazing. But the places that marked me were probably the Sahara Desert, Kenya, South East Asia, Japan the big cities of the US, and Greenland.’

Looking ahead

What does Mack think about his carbon footprint in these environmentally-conscious times? ‘Of course flying around the world is not the most ecofriendly thing to do. ‘But my plane is very efficient. It’s a very small aircraft, and it does a tiny fraction of what a bigger jet engine would do. So it’s not ideal, but it’s better than many of the planes out there, and hopefully in the future I’ll be able to do something with electric planes.’ Has travelling around the world changed Mack?

The 30,000 ‘I feel a lot more mile journey confident, both included Sudan, in the air and Madagascar, the on the ground. I understand a Yemeni island lot more about of Socotra, the aviation – and, Greenland ice caps and the actually, the world in general, how things work. Sahara desert And I have been able to cope with stress much better, helping me get through various difficulties and challenges.’ So, what’s next? ‘I’m working on my A-levels at the moment and trying to catch up with that! And I’ll carry on flying – I’m not sure in what area, but I’ll just keep flying.’ ‘We could not be more proud of Mack,’ says Sherborne School headmaster Dr Dominic Luckett. ‘He has shown skill, commitment, resilience and courage’.