Toronto-Zara Rutherford (Zara Rutherford) has a global mission: to be the youngest woman to travel the world.

Rutherford went to school in the UK, is Belgian, and comes from a family of pilots. Her brother and parents are in the cockpit. She told CTV News that she wanted to inspire more women to join the aviation industry.

“My whole family are pilots. My father is a pilot, my mother is a pilot, and even my brother is a pilot, so this is really my family,” Rutherford told CTV News. “I have been flying since I was born, and my father and mother are together. That’s how I learned.”

According to statistics, as of December 2020, the overall proportion of female pilots in Canada is 8.15%, of which 8.75% are employed by private airlines, 6.59% are employed by commercial airlines, and 5.83% are employed by passenger airlines. Global Aviation Women’s Association.

“You never really see a woman flying. When you think of a pilot, you don’t really think of a woman, you think of a man more,” Rutherford continued.

Rutherford said that seeing the gender imbalance in her career was part of the reason why she told her parents that she wanted to challenge herself and fly around the world alone.

The current female record holder is 30-year-old American Shaesta Waiz, an Afghan refugee. Travis Ludlow, 18, completed his round-the-world flight last month and is the youngest man to fly around the world.

“So with this 12-year-old age gap, I think the gap between male and female records is huge,” Rutherford told CTV News. “So I just want to bring this closer, and hope to make the girls compete with the boys.”

Rutherford Plan to depart this month One of the fastest ultralight aircraft on the market, called the Shark Ultralight, flies first over Greenland, then up and down the Americas, then to Asia, and then back to Europe.

The journey is approximately 51,000 kilometers, and depending on the weather conditions, it may take up to three months to complete.

“I tried to get girls interested in flying and aviation,” Rutherford said. “Really, our goal is for them to say:’Oh my God! There is a girl flying. I want to do the same.'”

But Rutherford has higher ambitions after flying around the world. She told CTV News that she hopes to eventually become an astronaut.