Matt has spent his life looking for fresh challenges to tackle and new obstacles to overcome. During the summer of 2014 he successfully attempted his greatest when he began the first leg of his forty-four day, 30,000 mile journey, which took him everywhere from New York City to London, Greece, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Hawaii and more, as he sought to become the youngest person ever to fly solo around the world.

His first solo flight on August 14th, 2011, was a quick trip around the airport in his hometown of Aberdeen, South Dakota, in a tiny, two-seat 1975 Cessna 150. But on May 31, 2014, Matt set out on a 44.5 day trip of over 30,000 miles in an attempt to become the youngest person to ever circumnavigate the globe on a solo flight. Born and raised in Aberdeen, Matt first began learning to fly at the age of 16, received his private pilot certificate on his 17th birthday, has gone on to earn his airline transport pilot certificate and numerous ratings, flown dozens of aircraft, and logged more than 3000 hours in the air (500 when he started the trip).

“I’m always looking for new challenges and unique experiences, but this is the biggest challenge I will have conquered,” he said before the trip. “Fewer people have flown solo around the world than have been to space.”

“Limitless Horizons” is a combination of both Matt's lifelong love of flying and his intense interest in computer science. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) holding a degree in electrical engineering and computer science, he's is a self-taught software engineer who first began writing code in 5th grade. He started one of the very first iPhone unlocking businesses in 2007 before selling it to another company, and by high school he had moved on to producing algorithms that could predict oil prices and using supercomputers to analyze stock trades. During his senior year of high school, Guthmiller was a finalist for the 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship before dropping out of that finalist round to go to MIT.

“With this flight, and by supporting Code.org, I hope to inspire other young people to attempt things of similar magnitude by showing them what’s possible. Often the biggest hurdle to success is simply a disbelief that it is achievable."