Eurobond Adhesives Sponsor World Record Attempt

Eurobond Adhesives are proud to have sponsored 19 year old Zara Rutherford in her attempt to become the youngest female pilot to fly solo around the world.

Zara’s stated aim and motivation for the world record attempt was “To inspire young people, in particular girls, to engage in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects at school and to motivate them to enter into technical or scientific careers”. What made Zara’s round-the-world attempt even more remarkable was that she had only held her private pilot’s licence for under two years, having qualified at the age of just 17, before she began her journey.

Ahead of trip Eurobond Adhesives’ Managing Director, Simon Dearing, a keen aviator himself commented, “Zara is a truly remarkable and courageous young woman and is a great role model, especially so for other young women. Our business shares much in common with Zara: embracing cutting edge technology, pushing boundaries and challenging science – in our case to produce some of the best high performance bonding solutions and most advanced dispensing equipment. 70% of the Eurobond workforce is female and everyone here will be following her world record attempt with a keen eye. We wish her a safe and successful trip!”

Setting off from Belgium, Zara flew through the UK and onto Iceland, following the perilous North Atlantic Ocean crossing. North America soon followed, crossing the ice flows and Greenland, before heading south into Canada, the USA, on to the Caribbean and South America.

Adverse weather caused diversions from the originally planned route, leading to unplanned days sat in remote airfields waiting for weather to clear. Zara said “I was stuck in Quibdó (Colombia) for a couple days. I was headed towards Tumaco which is further south but decided to land at the nearest airfield as the weather was slowly worsening. Quibdó happened to be the closest airfield, it also happens to be the rainiest city on Earth… The people here were incredible and I’m very thankful for all their help!’’

From Quibdo, Zara flew onwards to Asia and the Middle East, via the USA. Smog in Mumbai severely affected visibility and flight safety, leading to further diversions with delays caused by super typhoons in the Philippines and a puncture in Singapore. Before returning to Europe, this leg of the journey featured a nerve-wracking 1,000 mile non-stop 8hr flight over open ocean.

Once back in Europe for the final leg, the weather caused further delays. Once cleared, Zara was able to take off to complete her final leg, flying through Bulgaria, Slovakia, Czechia, Germany and finally into Belgium where it all began.

On the 20th January 2022 at 12:00 GMT, Zara completed her amazing global adventure, entering the Guinness Book of World Records not once but three times, following her epic solo flight around the world!

1. At 19 years old, Zara is the youngest female pilot to circumnavigate the globe by aircraft solo
2. The youngest person to circumnavigate solo, in a microlight aircraft
3. The first Belgian to circumnavigate the world, flying solo

For Zara’s flight to qualify, one pair of antipodes (points diametrically perfectly opposite to each other on the globe) had to be included. On the 3rd September 2021, she visited the first antipodal: Quibdo, Colombia (the wettest city on Earth), followed by the second: Jakarta, Indonesia on the 21st December.

As one of her sponsors, Eurobond Adhesives are so proud to have played a small part in Zara realising her dreams. Commenting at the end of her adventure Managing Director, Simon Dearing, says “Zara is an inspirational ambassador to all young women. She has achieved her dream, overcoming her fears, enduring extremely hostile and dangerous environments, flying over Californian wild fires, active volcanoes in Iceland, typhoons in Indonesia, dodging volatile North Korean airspace and has remained focussed throughout. We hope that other young women will be inspired to challenge themselves and follow careers in technology and science.”

Key Facts & Figures from the World Record Setting Flight:

• Zara flew around the world in a Shark Aero aircraft, one of the fastest ultralight aircraft in the world (up to 300km/h). It was designed in Czechia and manufactured in Slovakia
• Completing her world record, Zara flew a total distance of 52,080.3km (28,121 nautical miles)
• The epic journey took 155 days, almost 5 months.
• A total time of 200 hours was spent in the air featuring 71 take-offs and landings
• Longest flight over land was: 2000km (1080 nautical miles)
• Longest flight over water was: 1861km (1005 nautical miles)
• Highest altitude flown: 4200m (13,800ft), over Greenland
• Continents visited: 5
• Countries visited: 41
• Highest temperature: 32°C (Jakarta, Indonesia)
• Lowest temperature: -34°C (Magadan, Russia)