By ANN Correspondent Kevin "Hognose" O'Brien

No one is neutral on Jimmy Franklin's airshow. He's the second craziest in the air, driving audiences wild with his gravity-defying displays of virtuosity.

While everyone admires his virtuosity, EAA is first and foremost a brotherhood of homebuilders and antique-aviation guys, so there are some who grumble. "How could he do that to that beautiful airplane?" Jimmy's unique JMF-7 biplane started life as a Waco UPF-7 in 1937. That, as the antique-plane aficionados would say with verbal italics, is attach a General Electric CJ610-6 turbojet.

Aero-News's advice to those complaining about what Jimmy did: get a life. If you want to have a Waco exactly like it was back in Grandad's heyday, go buy one. It's Jimmy's plane, and if he wanted to paint it pink with purple polka-dots, well, it's a free country last time I checked. And hey, when and if Jimmy is good and done with flying a jet-powered Waco, well, he welded the thing on there, he can get a Texican speedwrench and cut it off when he wants.

During his routine Jimmy Franklin takes maximum advantage of the added thrust, driving the Waco through numbers of vertical maneuvers.

In addition to his solo routine and his routine with a stalwart wing-walker (!), Jimmy also flies two multiple-performer routines: Kings of Disaster with Bobby Younkin and Jim Leroy, and Masters of Disaster with Jim Leroy and Kent Shockley, the ground end of the whole enterprise in the Shockwave jet truck - the only Peterbilt with an afterburner you're ever likely to see. 

By now, of course, you are wondering what this headline means. If Jimmy is the second-craziest, who could possibly be first?

Well, that's easy. The craziest guy aloft has to be his son Kyle, his wing walker!

FMI: http://www.franklinairshows.com/