Polar Winds traces a century of northern flight from balloonatics to bush pilots and beyond.

"They were all gamblers and fortune seekers. They did things on their own -- were independent people who wanted to be free to roam. They were good people, but, of course, some were loners or escapists. They all depended strictly on their wits."

Joe McBryan, pilot and owner of Yellowknife-based Buffalo Airways, was talking about gold prospectors in the 1940s when he said this, but he could just as easily have been describing the aviators who have flown northern skies for over...