Captain Shaesta Waiz is committed to attracting more women into the aviation industry and plans to reach out to them during her round-the-world flight

Paramount Business Jets to sponsor round-the-world flight

Virginia, USA-based Paramount Business Jets is to sponsor a leg of an upcoming round-the-world flight. Captain Shaesta Waiz, 28, will depart from Daytona Beach, Florida, in a single-engine Beechcraft A36 Bonanza in a bid to become the youngest woman to fly solo around the world.

“On behalf of the team at Paramount Business Jets, it is an honour to support an extraordinary Embry-Riddle graduate seeking to be the youngest woman to fly solo around the world and to support her mission to inspire young people throughout the upcoming journey and beyond,” says Richard Zaher, founder and CEO of Paramount.

Waiz was born in a refugee camp in 1987 and emigrated with her family to America at the height of fighting in the Soviet-Afghan war. The family settled in Richmond, California, and she went on to study at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) in Daytona Beach, where she became the first person in her family to earn a bachelor's and master's degree, as well as the first certified civilian female pilot from Afghanistan.

“It was a struggle financially, and some of my family members didn't want me to fly,” she says, “but my experiences demonstrate the need for women to explore opportunities within the aviation industry.” To which end she set up the Women's Ambassador Programme to mentor and give financial aid to ERAU freshman students, and launched the Dreams Soar initiative to inspire the next generation of STEM professionals and pilots.