Zara and Mack Rutherford

The Royal Automobile Club’s prestigious Segrave Trophy was presented in 2023 to Zara and Mack Rutherford for becoming the youngest woman and youngest person, respectively, to circumnavigate the globe.

Aviation has always been a passion for the Rutherford’s. Both their parents hold pilot’s licences, and frequently took the young Zara and Mack up in the air with them. As soon as they were able, the siblings were flying on their own – literally, in Mack’s case, as he became the world’s youngest qualified pilot at just 15 years and three months. This love for aviation continued, and enticed Zara, then aged 19, to attempt a circumnavigation of the globe. In doing so, she would become the youngest woman to fly around the world, which would lower the record by 11 years. She completed her flight on Thursday 20 January 2022, a 32,000-mile journey that took her through 51 countries over five months and two days.

This spirit of bravery and endeavour demonstrated by Zara inspired her brother Mack, then just 17 years old, to attempt a solo circumnavigation himself. Travelling 541,124km through 30 countries over five months and one day — just one fewer than Zara — Mack successfully broke the record for youngest person to fly solo around the world, breaking the record by just over a year.