Jamaican born pilot Barrington Irving lands at the Opa-Locka Airport in Miami after 95 days of travel. Irving is the youngest person and first black person first Jamaican American, and youngest person EVER to pilot a plane around the world solo.
On 23 March 2007, while still an undergrad student at Florida Memorial University, Irving flew a Columbia 400, a single-engine aircraft named “Inspiration”, solo around the world. He arrived back on 27 June 2007, having completed the 24,600-mile circumnavigate. Upon completing the trip, Irving, who was 23-years old at the time, became the first black person to circumnavigate the globe and at the time, the youngest person to do so. The completion of the flight earned Barrington a title in the Guinness Book of Records.
Through his platform, Captain Irving founded The Flying Classroom and Experience Aviation to invest, inspire and empower young professionals in STEM+ and aviation careers. The Flying Classroom, LLC, launched in 2013, is a K 12 integrative STEM+ supplemental curriculum to educate and connect young professionals to STEM+ and aviation careers. Through a proprietary platform, students can explore over 55 STEM-focused global expeditions and have access to 165 interactive and virtual lessons.
In fall of 2022, Irving announced his plans of partnering with industry stakeholders to build an aviation workforce training center in Miami. The training center will aim to increase the number of young professionals in the business aviation industry, with an initial focus on maintenance-related careers.
Experience Aviation, founded in 2005, is a 501-C3 non-profit organization based at Opa-Locka Executive Airport that utilizes Aviation to build STEM skills in students to address the shortage of STEM professionals by engaging in STEM-related industry challenges. It brings hands-on, project-based, and interactive STEM experiences to the youth, such as building hovercraft, aircraft, and supercars across the nation.
Irving’s record was broken in 2012 by 22-year-old Swiss pilot Carlo Schmid, in 2014 by 19-year-old American pilot Matt Guthmiller and in 2022 by 17-year old British-Belgian pilot Mack Rutherford.
