Pirated Skies
Kyle and Amanda Franklin

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 and Amanda Franklin and Matt Younkin are all third generation pilots who come from rather well known families in the aviation community. Kyle is the son of legendary airshow pilot Jimmy Franklin, Matt is the son of legendary airshow pilot Bobby Younkin, and Amanda, being Matt’s sister and Kyle’s wife, obviously ties the two families together.

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. Kyle, who has retired to the cockpit, is now dazzling airshow spectators across the country with his tremendous ability to pilot airplanes that he formerly walked on and hung beneath.

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 at age 14 by Ken Collier in a Piper J-3 Cub. At age 15 Chuck Irvin, the same instructor who taught his father to fly, refined Matt’s piloting skills. On his 16th birthday, Matt soloed his grandfather's 1928 Travel Air 4000 bi-plane. Matt, now a fully rated flight instructor himself, has almost 3000 hours of total flight time and is proficient in over 50 types of airplanes ranging from the Piper Cub to the North American B-25 Mitchell. 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 and later refining them in the Super Decathlon.

Amanda also grew up around airplanes and air shows. As a small girl, she was always with her father Bobby as he was signing autographs and interacting with the crowd. Although Amanda and Bobby were very close, he never tried to influence her to become a pilot or even to like airplanes as a young girl. At age 14, she started working part time for Bobby around the office. She assisted Bobby’s secretary Catana with all manner of things from filing receipts and preparing taxes to organizing airshow paperwork. Amanda quickly learned quite a few airshow ins and outs as well as tricks of the marketing trade that would greatly benefit her in the future. Another little known skills is Amanda’s ability to fly several different types of airplanes. She learned her basic flying skills from Chuck Irvin. After soloing at age 16, she started training with Bobby in the Super Decathlon. She would eventually take her private pilot’s check ride in this same airplane. Amanda is now an accomplished tail wheel and multi-engine pilot having flown 12 different types of aircraft to date. She is also the glue that holds the organization together. Amanda announces for Matt, wing walks for Kyle, and books airshows and acquires sponsors for both of them.

The "Sons (and daughter) of Legends" have partnered up to bring people a little taste of the type of aviation that they were privileged enough to experience growing up.

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." Matt, Amanda, and Kyle have certainly taken this lesson and many others that Bobby and Jimmy taught them to heart.

For more on Franklin's Flying Circus,
please visit FranklinAirShow.com.