The youngest sibling around the world aviators set another youth record Tuesday as they collected a trophy whose previous winners include Lewis Hamilton and Richard Branson. British-Belgian duo Mack and Zara Rutherford, both 16, are the newest recipients of the Royal Automobile Club’s Segrave Trophy. The award honors the fastest person ever to travel over land or water. In 1928 English driver Sir Henry Segrave became the first man to travel faster than 200mph on land when he broke the record at Daytona Beach in Florida. He smashed the ocean speed record the following year when he reached 98mph at Lake Windermere in England. The 16-year-old was only the third person awarded the trophy since it was introduced in 1930 and features a roll call of aviation pioneers and motorsport greats.
The British-Belgian pair also share the title of the youngest to fly solo worldwide in a microlight aircraft. Their father is a ferry pilot, and their mother is a private pilot. They have flown hundreds of hours together, and each took their pilot’s license at a very young age. Mack, who has the nickname “Mr. Sunshine” because he is so happy-go-lucky on his flights, began his trek on March 23 and is expected to finish on July 27. The journey will visit 52 countries in five continents, cross the equator twice and travel more than 40,000 miles.
He is averaging about 600 miles per day and will stop at various places along the way, including an uninhabited island at the end of Alaska’s Aleutian chain known as Attu. The trip has been documented on his social media page. “Just follow your dreams, no matter how old you are – work hard and move forward to achieve your goals,” he said after landing on Wednesday.
Zara, who just started a placement with the Renault-owned Alpine Formula One team next week, said she was “so proud” of her brother. “It is amazing what he has accomplished,” she said. “It was a big decision to take on such a huge adventure, and he has done a fantastic job.”
A day earlier, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocketed into space with Branson aboard as Astronaut 001. He will be joined by chief astronaut Beth Moses (Astronaut 002), lead operations engineer Colin Bennett (Astronaut 003), and Virgin Galactic vice-president Sirisha Bandla (Astronaut 004).
The spacecraft will reach 50,000 feet and release the VSS Unity, a reusable winged spacecraft that can carry six passengers and two pilots into suborbital space. The Unity will then fire its rocket motor and shoot upwards to three-and-a-half times the speed of sound (2,600mph) into suborbital space, where it will reenter the atmosphere and return to Earth. The trip costs $28 million per ticket. It is sold out through 2022. Branson plans to offer more seats in the future.
