Meet the 17-year-old American schoolboy who will be the youngest person ever to fly around the world in 30 days
If they succeed, 17-year-old Haris - who has been flying with his father, Babar, since he was eight - will be the youngest ever to accomplish this daredevil feat.
But it’s not just personal goals that the Sulemans, from Plainfield, Indiana, are striving for.
When they begin their journey next month they will also be raising money to help educate Pakistan’s poorest of the poor – the children living in some of the world’s worst slums.
A veteran at 17: Haris Suleman has been flying with his father since he was a toddler, and next month will embark on a round-the-world trip, with Haris the lead pilot
The father-son team will take flight in a single-engine plane that they are familiar with and say they have taken all the necessary precautions in preparing
Dad Babar Suleman is an experienced pilot and said he only plans to take over the controls from his son Haris in the event of an emergency
The charity Babar and Haris are supporting – The Citizens Foundation – is this week celebrating the opening of its 1,000th school.
Since TCF’s inception in 1995, the non-profit organization headquartered in Karachi, Pakistan, has built purpose-made primary and secondary schools in the nation’s most in-need communities with the proviso that every attempt is made to have an equal number of boys to girls in the classrooms and the teaching staff is all female.
Depending on the weather, Babar and Haris plan to set off from Indianapolis in June.
Their trip will include stops in Canada, Iceland, England, Greece, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Australia, Fiji, American Samoa, Kiribati, Hawaii and California.
Using the latest technology, anyone interested will be able to follow the exact flight path of the plane and watch their progress from videos mounted on the outside of the aircraft.
'I am really looking forward to getting going,' said Haris, a junior at Plainfield High School.
'I only just got my license but I can’t imagine a better way to spend my summer.'
'He will be the pilot in command,' added Babar.
'I will only take over the controls in an emergency situation. If all goes well, my son will be going back to school for his senior year with some tall tales to tell.
'He has been flying with me since he was 8-years-old. He couldn’t see above the windshield in those days but he would keep the three instruments in line.'
Last September, Australian teenager Ryan Campbell, 19, became the youngest person to fly a single-engine aircraft solo around the world, pipping the Guinness World Record set by 21-year-old Jack Wiegand three months earlier.
Their journeys took 70 days and 58 days respectively.
‘Haris is not going solo, so he is in a different category,’ said his father.
‘But no 17-year-old pilot in command has ever done this so far, so he gets to hold that record.
‘The second record is the attempt to do it in 30 days, depending on the weather.’
The intrepid pair have taken every precaution to be ready for any emergency, even going on a sea survival course to learn what to do in the event they have to ditch in the ocean.
Babar knows all too well that when you’re flying a plane, things don’t always go to plan. He survived an emergency landing after his plane developed engine trouble during a flight in 2008.
'I had to land on a highway when my engine gave out,' he said. 'My idea this time is that I am planning for an actual ditching. Then if nothing goes wrong it’s a bonus!'
About 60% of the trip will be over huge expanses of water, including the Atlantic, the Pacific and parts of the Indian Ocean.
They will also be passing over the Swiss Alps, the Arabian Desert and the tropical forests of Southeast Asia.
The longest stretch - from Hawaii to California – will take about 13 hours.
Today, TCF runs 1,000 schools with 145,000 students across Pakistan. Every teacher, every principal, is a woman. Every classroom strives to hold as many girls as boys.
The organization’s founders hope that with the help of supporters like the Sulemans, they can forge partnerships with the government in the future to fix Pakistan’s broken public education system.
This family is related to Rao Qamar Suleman so no surprise there.
- Haris Suleman, 17, of Plainfield, Indiana, has been flying with his father, Babar, since he was eight
- Next month the pair will embark on a round-the-world trip in a single-engine plane
- They hope to make it in 30 days depending on weather
- Last September, Australian teenager Ryan Campbell, 19, became the youngest person to fly a single-engine aircraft solo around the world, which took 70 days
- Suleman is not flying solo so he is in a different category
- First stop will be Canada, before hitting the other major continents of Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia
- The trip will finish in California
If they succeed, 17-year-old Haris - who has been flying with his father, Babar, since he was eight - will be the youngest ever to accomplish this daredevil feat.
But it’s not just personal goals that the Sulemans, from Plainfield, Indiana, are striving for.
When they begin their journey next month they will also be raising money to help educate Pakistan’s poorest of the poor – the children living in some of the world’s worst slums.
A veteran at 17: Haris Suleman has been flying with his father since he was a toddler, and next month will embark on a round-the-world trip, with Haris the lead pilot
The father-son team will take flight in a single-engine plane that they are familiar with and say they have taken all the necessary precautions in preparing
Dad Babar Suleman is an experienced pilot and said he only plans to take over the controls from his son Haris in the event of an emergency
The charity Babar and Haris are supporting – The Citizens Foundation – is this week celebrating the opening of its 1,000th school.
Since TCF’s inception in 1995, the non-profit organization headquartered in Karachi, Pakistan, has built purpose-made primary and secondary schools in the nation’s most in-need communities with the proviso that every attempt is made to have an equal number of boys to girls in the classrooms and the teaching staff is all female.
Depending on the weather, Babar and Haris plan to set off from Indianapolis in June.
Their trip will include stops in Canada, Iceland, England, Greece, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Australia, Fiji, American Samoa, Kiribati, Hawaii and California.
Using the latest technology, anyone interested will be able to follow the exact flight path of the plane and watch their progress from videos mounted on the outside of the aircraft.
'I am really looking forward to getting going,' said Haris, a junior at Plainfield High School.
'I only just got my license but I can’t imagine a better way to spend my summer.'
'He will be the pilot in command,' added Babar.
'I will only take over the controls in an emergency situation. If all goes well, my son will be going back to school for his senior year with some tall tales to tell.
'He has been flying with me since he was 8-years-old. He couldn’t see above the windshield in those days but he would keep the three instruments in line.'
Last September, Australian teenager Ryan Campbell, 19, became the youngest person to fly a single-engine aircraft solo around the world, pipping the Guinness World Record set by 21-year-old Jack Wiegand three months earlier.
Their journeys took 70 days and 58 days respectively.
‘Haris is not going solo, so he is in a different category,’ said his father.
‘But no 17-year-old pilot in command has ever done this so far, so he gets to hold that record.
‘The second record is the attempt to do it in 30 days, depending on the weather.’
The intrepid pair have taken every precaution to be ready for any emergency, even going on a sea survival course to learn what to do in the event they have to ditch in the ocean.
Babar knows all too well that when you’re flying a plane, things don’t always go to plan. He survived an emergency landing after his plane developed engine trouble during a flight in 2008.
'I had to land on a highway when my engine gave out,' he said. 'My idea this time is that I am planning for an actual ditching. Then if nothing goes wrong it’s a bonus!'
About 60% of the trip will be over huge expanses of water, including the Atlantic, the Pacific and parts of the Indian Ocean.
They will also be passing over the Swiss Alps, the Arabian Desert and the tropical forests of Southeast Asia.
The longest stretch - from Hawaii to California – will take about 13 hours.
Today, TCF runs 1,000 schools with 145,000 students across Pakistan. Every teacher, every principal, is a woman. Every classroom strives to hold as many girls as boys.
The organization’s founders hope that with the help of supporters like the Sulemans, they can forge partnerships with the government in the future to fix Pakistan’s broken public education system.
- The intrepid pair has taken every precaution to be ready for any emergency, even going on a sea survival course to learn what to do in the event they have to ditch in the ocean
There are more than 240,000 public schools in Pakistan, many of them so badly run they don’t even have toilets or electricity let alone desks and computers.
See a news story of Babar Suleman's emergency landing on a highway in 2008 below
This family is related to Rao Qamar Suleman so no surprise there.
It's not just a saying, it's TRUE !!
