Wang Zheng

Wang Zheng (; born 25 December 1972), also known as Julie Wang, is an airline pilot and an FAA Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) in the United States, where she resides. She is the first Asian woman to circumnavigate Earth in an airplane. Wang is also the first Chinese pilot to fly solo around the world and the eighth woman to do so. Early life and education Wang grew up in Harbin, China. Her parents were professors involved in aerospace research. Wang attended college at Xiamen University and then spent fifteen years as a global advertising executive, before deciding to leave China with the goal of becoming a pilot. Wang relocated to the United States with her husband and daughter in September 2010, and received her pilot's license in 2011. Afterward, she received certification as a fight instructor, and opened a flight school in Florida. Global circumnavigation In September 2016, Wang completed a solo circumnavigation of the globe in an airplane, becoming the first Chinese person to fly an airplane solo around the world. She departed westbound from Addison, Texas on August 17, 2016, and paused in California to have ferry tanks installed and obtain FAA approvals for the aircraft modifications. She departed from Merced, California on September 2, 2016, and made stops in Hawaii, the Marshall Islands, Guam, the Philippines, China, Thailand, India, the United Arab Emirates, Greece, Malta, Portugal, the Azores and Newfoundland, before returning to Texas on September 19, thirty-three days later.