Barrington Irving was the first African American and, as of 2010, the youngest person to fly solo around the world. At the age of 23, he flew for the first time. Irving was born on November 11th, 1983, in Kingston, Jamaica. He came from a family of three brothers, the eldest of which he was the eldest Irving's family moved to Miami's inner city when he was six years old. Following are the timeline of events:
- Irving worked part-time at his parents' Christian bookstore when he wasn't in school.
- Irving developed a strong interest in aviation when he was about 15 years old.
- A United Airlines pilot who was a customer at his parents' bookstore invited Irving to visit the airport and tour the cockpit of a Boeing 777 airliner.
- Irving's life changed dramatically after the trip, and he became obsessed with learning to fly.
- Irving soon found himself taking odd jobs at airports to obtain flight experience in small planes while also practicing at home with a computer flight simulator.
- Irving attended Miami Northwestern Senior High School while working some jobs to help fund his aviation ambitions.
- In 2002, he completed secondary school. Irving declined football scholarships in favor of a Florida Bright Future Scholarship, which assisted him in paying for community college programs.
- Irving was granted the $100,000 Florida Memorial University/US Air Force Flight Awareness Scholarship in 2003 as a consequence of his volunteer efforts teaching children about aviation options.
- Irving was able to attend Florida Memorial University and study aerospace science because of this scholarship. It also included flight instruction, during which Irving acquired various pilot ratings and logged hundreds of hours in the air.
- Irving established the non-profit Experience Aviation, Inc. in 2005. The corporation's mission was to educate and motivate young people to pursue professions in aviation.
- Experience Aviation was awarded a federal grant that allowed it to develop educational programs, provide students with aircraft tours, and build flight simulators for student use.
- Irving is well known for being the first person to solo circumnavigate the globe.
- Irving began fundraising for his round-the-world trip in 2003, eventually having Columbia Aircraft assemble a Columbia 400 single-engine plane named the Inspiration out of donated parts.
- Irving took out from Miami, Florida on March 23, 2007, with only 600 hours of flying experience.
To conclude, Irving returned to Miami on June 27th after visiting several locations in Europe and Asia. He remains engaged in the aviation community, having embarked on a journey to fly around the world in 2010 to promote aviation careers.
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