INTERNATIONAL: British-Belgian teenager Mack Rutherford is hoping to become the youngest male, at 16, to fly around the world solo in a light aircraft, just months after his sister Zara became the youngest woman to do so.

Mack has said on Tuesday he felt "pretty confident" he was ready for the challenge as he has posed for pictures in front of his Shark ultralight plane at Biggin Hill Airfield in London.

The teenager is due to take off from the Bulgarian capital Sofia on March 17 and expects to be gone for two to three months.

His sister Zara became on January 20 the youngest woman, at 19, to fly solo around the world, and also the first person to do so in a microlight plane, after a five-month, five-continent odyssey in her Shark ultralight.

Zara has said she was not planning to visit her brother during his journey, but would "be with him every step of the way".

"He's a great pilot and I know he's able to do this," she has confidently said about his brother.

Their father Sam Rutherford has echoed her confidence while acknowledging the risks of such a journey. "I think what he has already is an enormous depth in terms of his ability, not just as a pilot, but actually as an aviator," he has said.

Mackck Rutherford, whose parents are also pilots, has said he had known he wanted to fly from an early age. Setting a new world record was not his main motivation: "I want to show that young people can make a difference, that you don't have to be an adult to do incredible things."

The current world record is held by Briton Travis Ludlow, who was 18 when he completed his trip.