Alaska Bush Pilot

Many years ago when aviation was still young, few people believed that the airplane was here to stay. The planes were covered with cloth and held together with bailing wire. They were weak and flimsy craft. But the people who flew them were strong and brave.

One of the bravest of these was Carl Ben Eielson. Not only did Ben fly these clumsy early-day airplanes, but he flew them in one of the most dangerous and untamed parts of the world—Alaska.

Alaska Bush Pilot is the true story of Ben Eielson's exciting life as a pioneer flier in the cold, stormy, and always treacherous Land of the Midnight Sun.

The plane pictured on our cover is the first one Ben flew in Alaska, a Curtiss JN-4 Jenny, which you can read more about in David Weitzman's book, Jenny: The Airplane that Taught America to Fly.