Flying the Frontiers, Vol. 3: Aviation Adventures Around the World

Patricia A. Myers is a historian at the Historic Sites and Archives
Service, Alberta Community Development, and the author of Sky Riders: An
Illustrated History of Aviation in Alberta, 1906–1945.

Matheson’s third volume of aviation profiles recounts the adventures
of pilots and engineers around the world. Moving from bush flying along
British Columbia’s coast, to Burma and the Arctic, and on to the tales
of two Canadians involved with the space industry, the stories in this
collection will delight, entertain, and inform.

A wide range of aviation experiences are represented. Individual
stories highlight the heroic, the innovative, the routine, and the
challenging aspects of flying all sorts of aircraft in all sorts of
situations and conditions. The opening piece, “What Do You Want to Do?
Live Forever?,” is the story of Cedric Mah, one of the Flying Tigers.
The Tigers flew over the treacherous “Burma Hump,” taking supplies
to Chiang Kaishek’s Nationalist armies after the Burma Road had fallen
to the Japanese during World War II. The route was extremely dangerous,
with mountainous terrain and variable weather conditions. In “The
Merger of the Masters,” Matheson gives one answer to the question
“What happens to old pilots?” Luckily, some of them get involved
with aviation heritage organizations and put their lifetime of knowledge
to work preserving planes.

The great variety of subjects—from fledgling commercial outfits, to
aviation art, to the tragic end of a flight to Antarctica—makes this
book an important addition to the history of flying. The best stories
are those that focus on the flyers and what they love to do.
Matheson’s descriptions of difficult flights, dangerous landings, or
simply a love of flying are written with true feeling and understanding
for the situations and the decisions flyers and engineers had to make.