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"Sons of Legends"
KKyle Franklin son of Jimmy Franklin                          Matt Younkin son of Bobby Younkin
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 perfessional 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 Franklin
             
                        Matt Younkin

      
      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 performs four unique and amazing acts,
the crazy WINGTIP DRAGGING COMEDY ACT,
the worlds only MOTORCYCLE TO AIRPLANE TRANSFER,
Pirated Skies WACO "MYSTERY SHIP" AEROBATICS SOLO,
and NEW for 2009 PIRATE WINGWALKING with WingWalker Todd Green.

Matt is continuing the Bobby Younkin Airshows legacy of performing precision aerobatics in unique airplanes and unique aerobatics in precision airplanes. In addition, Matt is performing precision aerobatics in
his father's TWIN BEECH 18 (Day & Night Act),
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 Matt have certainly taken this and lesson and many others that Jimmy and Bobby taught them to heart.

Click here to visit Matt Younkin's web site.

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