Masters of Disaster

This redirect is about the airshow team. For other uses, see The Master of Disaster (disambiguation).

File:X-Team Masters of Disaster (promotional poster).jpg

Promotional poster

The Masters of Disaster are an airshow team that performs aerobatics in a combination with ground-based jet-propelled trucks and pyrotechnics. The group is known for the improvisational and often unscripted performances they give. The show once included a jet-propelled biplane.

Two of the team's founding members, (Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin), were killed in a crash during a performance at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, on July 10, 2005.

The team re-grouped and began to perform airshows again later in 2005. Two years later the team leader, Jim LeRoy, died at the Dayton Air Show on July 28, 2007 performing an exhibition they called Codename:Maryslamb. His Pitts Special aircraft crashed 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, performed two shows, entitled Tinstix and Codename:Maryslamb.

The team began to perform a new act in 2014 entitled "The Immortals", which featured Kyle Franklin, Skip Stewart, Melissa Pemberton, Neal Darnell, Chris Darnell and Paul Stender.

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 (Retired from Airshows - 2012) [1]
• Jurgis Kairys - Aerobatics
• John Mohr - Aerial Transfer (Retired from Airshows - 2013)
• Rich & Dee Gibson - Pyrotechnics (Retired From Airshows - 2013)
• Gene Soucy - Aerobatics
• Patty Wagstaff - Aerobatics
• Melissa Andrzejewski - Aerobatics
• Kyle Franklin - Aerobatics
• Skip Stewart - Aerobatics
• Neal & Chris Darnell - Jet Trucks [2]
• Paul Stender - Jet School Bus
• Firewalkers International Pyro - Pyrotechnics
• Kai R. van den Heuvel - Genius

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 investigation of the deaths of Franklin and Younkin