The Fokker Universal was the first aircraft built in the United States that was based on the designs of Dutch-born Anthony Fokker, who had designed aircraft for Germany during World War I. About half of the 44 Universals that were built between 1926 and 1931 in the United States were used in Canada. Among the famous pilots who flew the Fokker Universal were Punch Dickins and Walter Gilbert.

Clennell Haggerston "Punch" Dickins was a pioneering Canadian aviator and bush pilot. Northern Indigenous Canadians called him "Snow Eagle", northern Europeans called him "White Eagle", while the press dubbed him the "Flying Knight of the Northland".