Sons of Legends

 

2008 will see a return of the “Sons of Legends.”  For over 30 years, the definition of airshows has been Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin. These two brought the most innovative, insane, and impossible acts to life with their super-human ability to fly. By keeping the tradition alive, the next generation of Franklin and Younkin are showing the world that they have what Bobby used to call "that defective gene.”

Kyle Franklin and Matt Younkin are both third generation pilots who come from rather well known families in the aviation community. They are less than a year apart in age and airshows have been a part of their lives since day one.

Kyle grew up living in a hangar-house in Ruidoso, NM. The hangar soon became his favorite playground as well as a place where he and his father shared quality time servicing Waco's, Super Cubs, and the Aerostar. Kyle's first airplane ride was four weeks after his birth. Father Jimmy taught him how to fly when he was eight years old and later taught him aerobatics. As a toddler, Kyle seized every opportunity to wing-walk in Dad's Waco Mystery Ship as it taxied on about on the ground at air shows. Kyle took his first airborne wing-walk at age 14, and just three years later he was wing-walking professionally at age 17. At this point, Kyle became the world's youngest wing-walker as well as half of the only father/son wing-walking team in history. After the transition to the Jet Waco, Kyle became the world's first and only jet wing-walker.

Matt grew up on a private airstrip in Lowell, AR. His third word was "airplane" and when he wasn't riding in his father's Beech 18 or AT-6, he was playing what he called "airshow center" with his toy airplanes over an airport he had drawn on the driveway with a piece of chalk. Matt was taught to fly by Chuck Irvin (the same instructor who taught his father to fly.) On his 16th birthday, Matt soloed his grandfather's 1928 Travel Air 4000 bi-plane. Matt's father gave him limited aerobatic instruction which focused mainly on slow rolls. Like his father, Matt taught himself aerobatics by flying radio controlled model airplanes.

Kyle and Matt consider themselves "Sons of Legends" and have partnered up to bring people a little taste of the type of aviation that they were privileged enough to experience growing up. Kyle, with the help of his new stuntman and wing-walker Ryan Leach, is continuing the WINGTIP DRAGGING COMEDY, MOTORCYCLE TO AIRPLANE TRANSFER, and the WACO "MYSTERY SHIP" SOLO AND WINGWALKING AEROBATICS that the Franklin's Flying Circus is famous for. Matt is continuing the Bobby Younkin Airshows legacy of performing precision aerobatics in unique airplanes and unique aerobatics in precision airplanes.  Matt is now performing precision aerobatics in TWIN BEECH 18, the 1929 TRAVEL AIR "MYSTERY SHIP" as well as unique outside aerobatics in the SUPER DECATHLON.

Bobby Younkin always said "An airshow act has to be unique and original to be great.  People come to air shows to see the impossible take place."  Kyle and Matthew have certainly taken this lesson and many others that Jimmy and Bobby taught them to heart. 

For more information on Kyle Franklin and Franklin's Flying Circus, please visit: www.franklinairshow.com