NEW YORK, May 17 /PRNewswire/ — When Barrington Irving returns to Miami in the last week of May, the 23-year-old pilot will set two world records: he will become the first African American and the youngest person ever to fly solo around the globe. He recently passed the halfway mark when he landed his single-engine aircraft in Calcutta, India, seven weeks after taking off from Miami on March 23rd where 3000 schoolchildren, well-wishers, local officials, and press gathered for the takeoff. In his Lancair Columbia 400, the veritable Ferrari of small aircraft, Irving is traversing four continents, clocking more than 130 hours of flight time on a “World Flight Adventure” that includes stops in the Azores, Spain, Greece, Egypt, Dubai, India, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan before returning him to the U.S. via Alaska.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica and raised in inner-city Miami, Irving’s purpose in making the flight is to inspire inner-city and minority youth, and other youth throughout the nation, to consider pursuing careers in aviation and aerospace. He named his plane “Inspiration,” he said, “…because that’s what I want my historic venture to be for young people. They can look at me and realize that if I can achieve my dream, they can too.”
Irving himself was inspired when, at age 15, he was working in his parents’ Christian bookstore and met a customer, Jamaican airline pilot Captain Gary Robinson, who asked him what he was doing with his life. The next day, Robinson took him on a tour of the cockpit of the United Airlines Boeing 777 he flew and the young man was hooked-he wanted to become a pilot. He began by washing planes and working odd jobs to pay for flying lessons, turned down college football scholarships and enrolled in a local community college to study aeronautics. He was awarded a joint Air Force/Florida Memorial University Flight Awareness Scholarship and transferred to the university, where he excelled in academics and flight training courses. By age 19, he had earned his Private Pilot and Flight Instructor licenses and his Commercial and Instrument Ratings.
Irving’s custom-made aircraft, including state-of-the-art data programming with electronic charts and extended range fuel tanks, is evidence of his determination to achieve his dream of circling the world. In 2003, when no aircraft manufacturer would lend or lease him a plane, he asked aircraft component manufacturing companies to donate only the part they produced. After securing $300,000 in donated components, including tires, cockpit systems, seats, and the engine, Columbia Aircraft in Oregon agreed to assemble the parts and build him the world’s fastest single-engine piston aircraft in production today.
While the plane was being built, Irving founded Experience Aviation Inc. (EA), a nonprofit organization that provides flight simulator training and aviation career guidance to middle and high school students. He opened the first EA Learning Center opened in Miami in November, 2006, with the support of the Miami Mayor, School Commissioners, and other local officials and businesses. Students who attend the center are among the thousands worldwide who have been tracking Irving’s trip on Microsoft flight simulator programs and reading his flight blog on his website, http://www.experienceaviation.org/.
Irving is scheduled to fly from Japan to Alaska on May 21st, the 80th anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s takeoff from New York on his successful effort to become the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. The young pilot is following in the tradition of Lindbergh, his heroes the Tuskegee Airmen, and his mentors Erik Lindbergh (grandson of Charles Lindbergh), Steve Fossett, and Dick Rutan, who support his efforts to inspire youth as he joins the ranks of record-setting aviators.
“I wish I had a chance to bring every child tracking the flight on my adventure, but I will be carrying all their hearts with me in the plane,” Irving said when he left Miami. “This is what fuels me-having youth believe in what I can do, so they can also begin to believe in themselves.”
Throughout the flight, Barrington is staying in contact with the title sponsors that helped make his dream a reality: Miami Executive Aviation, Teledyne Continental Motors, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Miami Dade Empowerment Trust, Avidyne, Universal Weather and Aviation, Inc., Chevron, and Miami Dade County Commissioners.
More than 4000 people are expected to attend Barrington’s arrival ceremony in Miami now scheduled for the last week of May. He will also be celebrated by his sponsors and friends at public events in Seattle, Denver, and Houston as he makes his way home.
Link to Irving’s website (link)
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