It is not just that 23-year-old Barrington Irving is probably, at this very moment, cruising alone through the troposphere in his Columbia 400 single-engine piston airplane made entirely of donated parts somewhere between Luxor, Egypt and Bangkok, Thailand that is fascinating.
Nor is it that Irving, in addition to being the youngest person ever, could also become the first African-American to fly solo around the world if he lands as planned in Miami, Florida on April 30.
What really impressed students who heard Irving speak at York College in downtown Jamaica while on a stopover between Cleveland and Canada, was that he turned down a scholarship to play college football - and with it a chance at the pros and the corresponding salary— to follow his passion: flying.
“The fact that he started out with nothing and turned everything else down to lead him to this,” amazed 18-year-old Jenny Chimbo from Astoria, who studies aviation management at the CUNY Aviation Institute at York College. “He was not concerned about money,” she said.
Irving, who was born in Kingston, Jamaica and raised in inner-city Miami, began his “World Flight Adventure” there on Friday, March 23.
By the time he finishes he will have traversed four continents in 130 flight hours over six weeks. During that period he will have stopped in 23 locations including the Azores, Spain, Greece, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan and Japan before circling home to the United States via Alaska.
Flying an aircraft named Inspiration, Irving wants to encourage young people throughout the nation to consider careers in aviation and aerospace. Columbia Aircraft Manufacturing Company in Oregon built him the plane, billed as the world’s fastest single-engine piston aircraft in production today.
“…[Inspiration is] what I want my historic venture to be for young people,” said Irving who on his web site www.experienceaviation.org cited hopelessness and negative influences in the community where he grew up as his motivation for the trip.
“They can look at me and realize that if I can achieve my dream, they can too,” he said.
Irving was 15 and working in his parents’ bookstore the day a chance conversation with a customer there, United Airlines pilot Captain Gary Robinson, changed his life forever. The next day Irving became an aviation addict when Robinson showed him around the cockpit of a Boeing 777.
After being awarded a joint Air Force/Florida Memorial University Flight Awareness Scholarship, Irving transferred to that 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 founded Experience Aviation Inc. (EA), a non-profit organization that provides flight simulator training and aviation career guidance to middle and high school students, at the age of 21. The first EA Learning Center opened in Miami in November, 2006.
“This is what fuels me—having youth believe in what I can do, so they can also begin to believe in themselves,” Irving said.
Michel Hodge, acting director of the Aviation Institute said “it meant the world” to have Irving visit the school as “living proof” that persistence pays off.
Funded by a grant from The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Aviation Institute is one of about 20 such programs nationwide, Hodge said.
Although the Institute was established in 2002, its degree program in aviation management is in its first year. After successfully completing the program students will be ready for low- and mid-level management positions in aviation, he said.
Visit www.experienceaviation.org to learn more about Irving, track his World Flight Adventure, read his blog, or make a donation.
Although the Institute was established in 2002, its degree program in aviation management is in its first year. Six students are enrolled in the program, described by Hodge as offering “sound business fundamentals” slanted toward the aviation industry.
After successfully completing the program students will be ready for low- and mid-level management positions in aviation, he said.
For Chimbo, Irving’s visit to York College was an inspiration, indeed.
“He began with nothing and now look at what he has. Honestly, nothing stopped him.” Because of it, “I realized now [aviation management] is really what I want to do,” she said.
Visit www.experienceaviation.org to learn more about Irving, track his World Flight Adventure, read his blog, or make a donation.
