Teen pilot Ryan Campbell / Pic: Simon Bullard Source: The Daily Telegraph
MORE than 130 years after Jules Verne’s seminal adventure novel Around the World in Eighty Days, NSW teen Ryan Campbell will be taking off on his own world record-breaking global journey.
But in his quest to be the youngest person to fly solo around the globe the 19-year-old from Merimbula will have to get it done 10 days better than Verne’s protagonist, Phileas Fogg.
«I’ve always wanted to do it but I kept it a secret,» Mr Campbell said.
«I got my commercial pilot’s licence just after my 18th birthday. After that I googled ‘how to fly around the world’ and got Dick Smith’s email.
«He replied saying to find support like (around the world teen sailor) Jessica Watson and we were writing back and forth for four weeks.»
The trip, which has been two years in the making, will see the young pilot take off from Wollongong at the end of the month. If all goes to plan he’ll cover over 38,624km with 28 stops in 14 countries on five continents and return home 10 weeks later to set a new record of 70 days.
«I’m only going to have one or two nights in each place, I won’t have much time to enjoy them. It will be a lot of airports and hotels,» he said.
Source: Huffingtonpost
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