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23-Year-Old African American To Set World Flight Record
		Universal Weather & Aviation, Inc. logo. (PRNewsFoto/Universal Weather & Aviation, Inc.) HOUSTON, TX UNITED STATES 03/27/2006
   Barrington Irving Passes Halfway Mark On Solo Flight Around the World

    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.
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