Aviator seeks to become first Black female pilot to fly around the world solo

Earthrounders, a website that keeps track of the accomplishment, reported 142 solo flights around the globe to date. That includes 11 female pilots but none of them were Black women.

Leona Serao is looking to cement her place in history as she embarks on a journey to become the first Black woman to fly solo around the globe.

Early August will see the 23-year-old set out on a three-month worldwide flight, traveling through 33 countries on four continents before she returns home, according to Yahoo News.

Earthrounders, a website that keeps track of the accomplishment, reported 142 solo flights around the globe to date. Female pilots, none of whom were Black, completed 11 of them.

Assuming she successfully makes the journey, Serao understands how significant it would be as the first Black woman to accomplish such an impressive feat. “I’m going to be able to inspire other Black and other African people who want to join the aviation field,” Serao told Yahoo News.

After six months of intense study and almost $70,000 spent on flight school, Serao, whose pilot father inspired her career journey, earned her pilot’s license at the end of 2020.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a little over 158,000 licensed pilots in the U.S. Less than 1%, or around 150, of those pilots are Black women, a sliver of the 2.6%, or about 4,100, of the total of African American pilots.

“There is 100% a void of young women seeing other young women who look like them in the field of aviation that they can aspire to,” Jamaican-American pilot Barrington Irving told Yahoo News.

Irving made aviation history in 2007 as the first Black person to fly solo around the globe. He recalled having only $30 in his pocket when he left Miami 16 years ago, unable to swim or afford a life jacket or a survival suit. Still, he was adamant about succeeding – especially after observing a couple of thousand people cheering him on at the airport.

“I just told myself, ‘I need to get from point A to point B and see how far it could go,'” Irving recalled, noting that crowdfunding wasn’t as popular back then.

Irving said the flight itself may have been the easiest part of his journey despite the lengthy periods of alone time. He admits that looking back, he doesn’t know what he was thinking given his limited resources, but ultimately, when his story inspired others, money began to pour in.

He has since established a school to train a new generation of aviators. As someone who has mentored at least six young pilots who have successfully flown alone around the globe, Irving is well aware of the long-lasting significance Serao’s endeavor will have.

She will inspire “so many women, not just Black girls, but so many women,” Irving contended, Yahoo reported. “And there’s nothing like being the first.”

Serao, born in the United States and reared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — the second-largest African nation, where only three women hold commercial pilot licenses — admits that she had trouble adjusting to American culture when she returned seven years ago before starting college. 

While her journey around the world won’t be easy, she is ready for the challenge. She started an online fundraising effort to help pay for her travel expenses, including food, fuel and housing.

Searo noted women historically had few opportunities to become pilots in the male-dominated aviation field. “We couldn’t even drive before [the 20th century]. And in the aviation industry, it stayed like that,” Sears said, per Yahoo.

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