Although only a small fraction of Black women work as pilots in the aviation industry in the United States, one ambitious aviator is determined to make history by becoming the first Black woman to complete a solo flight around the world. Leona Serao, a 23-year-old residing in New York City, is set to embark on her three-month journey in early August. According to Yahoo News, Serao intends to visit 33 countries spread across four continents before returning home.
“The fact that I’m going to be the first one means I’m going to be able to inspire other Black and other African people who want to join the aviation field,” she told the outlet.
Earthrounders, a site that tracks aviation accomplishments, reported that there have been 142 known solo flights around the globe to date. Only 11 pilots were women, but none of them were Black, according to Yahoo News.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are more than 158,000 licensed pilots in the United States. Black aviators account for 2.6% of the pilots, which is about 4,100 working in the industry. Of that number, only around 150 of them are Black women, per Yahoo News. The 23-year-old was born in the U.S. and raised in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the second-largest country in Africa, where only three women are licensed pilots.
For Leona Serao, breaking racial barriers in the aviation industry could inspire other young Black women to follow in her footsteps.
“It is a challenge because it’s a male-dominated field and women didn’t really get the opportunity to be pilots before,” she said. “We couldn’t even drive before [the 20th century]. And in the aviation industry, it stayed like that.”
Leona Serao isn’t the first Black person to make history in the aviation field. Jamaican-born American pilot Barrington Irving was the first Black person to fly around the world solo in 2007. He was also 23 years old when he completed the task.
Today, Irving is surprised at how he accomplished the journey after leaving Miami 16 years ago with only $30 in his pocket. He was not able to swim and did not have a life vest, per Yahoo News, but he said he knew he wanted to succeed in his chosen career path.