A teen pilot is today (mon) set to become the youngest person to fly around the world solo - at the age of just 18 years and five months old.

Ambitious Travis Ludlow has covered over 25,000 miles alone, in a single-engine aircraft, in the space of just six weeks, in his bid to put his name to the Guinness World Record.

The gruelling expedition saw him spend up to eight-hour days manning his Cessna 172 N5010 aircraft, sometimes travelling as far as 1,000 miles in one day without stopping.

And this lunchtime, the teen, from Ibstone, Bucks., is due to land at Teuge Airport in the Netherlands - officially marking the end of his round-the-world journey.

Travis however will have to wait to have the Guinness World Record verified, before he can call himself the youngest person to circumnavigate by aircraft, solo.

But at 18 years and 149 days old, he is confident he has beaten the previous record holder, Mason Andrews, from Louisiana, USA - who was 18 years and 163 days old when he completed his journey in October 2018.

Travis set off on his world record attempt journey from Teuge in the Netherlands on May 29th, just 44 days ago - after coronavirus delayed his original take-off date in June 2020.

His route, which started and finished in the Netherlands, saw him stop in 13 countries around the world - Netherlands, Poland, Russia, USA, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, UK, Ireland, Spain, Morocco, France, and Belgium.

He was also able to receive his second coronavirus jab during his journey, when he stopped in Texas, USA.

In order to break the world record, Travis' route had to cover at least 24,520 miles - a distance he surpassed last Friday as he flew the 1,300 miles from Donegal in Ireland, to Gibraltar in southern Spain.

He said: "Landing in Gibraltar was a dream come true. It's somewhere I've always wanted to fly into.

"It was also the same day I reached a total of 24,972 miles flown overall - which is 71 miles more than the circumference of the Earth at the equator.

"So it was two major milestones in one day."