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Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin Midair

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I saw a TV spot just a week or two ago about the "Masters of Disaster" where they really played up the "impromptu" angle of the act. The maneuvers apparently weren't all carefully choreographed as in many acts. It made me very un-easy watching the short clips...
 
I saw Jimmy Franklin at the Frederick airshow in Maryland last year. His act was down right wicked. I could not figure out how that Waco could withstand the forces impossed by over motoring like that. It had to have one strong spar.
 
Man I hate to see this. I always loved to watch Franklin's Waco bipe with the jet and Younkin's Lear performance.


RIP
 
Yea, last time I saw it I kept asking, how can they not hit each other with it so un-choreographed (sp). At Sussex, NJ going behind tree lines and in-between parked planes it looked really bad as#. Probably going to miss Jimmy's inverted flat spin in the Waco the most. He'd have it beltching fire upside-down, backfiring, and counting five, six, seven, eight spinns...
 
icefr8dawg said:
Yea, last time I saw it I kept asking, how can they not hit each other with it so un-choreographed (sp). At Sussex, NJ going behind tree lines and in-between parked planes it looked really bad as#. Probably going to miss Jimmy's inverted flat spin in the Waco the most. He'd have it beltching fire upside-down, backfiring, and counting five, six, seven, eight spinns...
Saw him do 18 turns in an inverted flat spin once.

All that stuff he'd do in his regular airshow routine used to be duplicated a couple of hours later with a wingwalker. You talk about CRAZY!
 
May God rest both their souls. Bobby spoke to our flying club a long long time ago and I've seen he and Jimmy Franklin fly before, insane! Both fellas were two of most memorable airshow pilots I've seen. Didn't know they were flying together though. I don't know when they died but their biplanes sure were in pieces and they impacted at a high rate of speed on the tube.
 

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