Global mission' Young pilot flying around world touches down in UK

At 15 years and 10 months of age, Byron Waller can't order a pint and has never driven a car, but yesterday afternoon he landed his small plane at an airport near Brighton on England's south coast.

- Esther Addley

At 15 years and 10 months of age, Byron Waller can't order a pint and has never driven a car, but yesterday afternoon he landed his small plane at an airport near Brighton on England's south coast. It was the 16th or so stop (he can't quite remember) on a remarkable odyssey he hopes will make him the youngest supported pilot to fly around the world.

The adventure began at his home in Brisbane, Australia, four weeks ago and has taken the teenager across the Indian Ocean and through the Middle East to Europe, from where he will venture around the other half of the globe and back home. Though he is accompanied by an instructor - global aviation rules not easily permitting children to fly around the world on their own - Byron does all the flying of their single-engined Sling TSi aircraft. They spend the flights - the longest of which so far was a 10-hour stretch from Singapore to Sri Lanka - chatting, calling family or occasionally listening to music, he told the Guardian.