- Masters of Disaster
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The Masters of Disaster are an airshow team that performs edge of your seat aerobatics in combination with ground based jet-propelled trucks and pyrotechnics. The show did include at one time a jet-propelled biplane.
The team lost two of its founding members (Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin) in a crash during a performance at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, on July 10, 2005.
The team re-grouped and was seen again on the airshow circuit in 2005. Two years later the team leader, Jim LeRoy, was lost at the Dayton Air Show on July 28, 2007 performing an exhibition they called Codename:Maryslamb. His Pitts Special aircraft slammed into the runway and slid for approximately 300 yards before becoming engulfed in flames. LeRoy died en route to the hospital from the injuries he sustained when his aircraft impacted the ground at high speed.
The team, in 2007, offers two shows, entitled Tinstix and Codename:Maryslamb.
Team members (past and present)
- Jimmy Franklin (Deceased July 10, 2005)
- Bobby Younkin (Deceased July 10, 2005)
- Jim LeRoy (Deceased July 28, 2007)
- Les & Kent Shockley - Jet Trucks [1]
- Jurgis Kairys - Aerobatics
- Skip Stewart - Aerobatics
- John Mohr - Aerial Transfer
- Gene Soucy - Aerobatics
- Rich Gibson - Pyrotechnics
- Patty Wagstaff - Aerobatics
- Melissa Pemberton - Aerobatics
External links
- Franklin Airshow
- Shockwave Jets
- XTeam Airshows
- News of the death of Jim Leroy from The Enquirer of Cincinnati and from AVweb.com
- News of the death of Franklin and Younkin at AVweb.com
Categories:- Modern aerobatic teams
- Airshows
- Air sports stubs
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