EAST TROY, WISCONSIN -- World Airshow News has announced that Matt Younkin is the 2012 recipient of the Bill Barber Award for Showmanship. The award will be presented during EAA AirVenture 2012 at EAA's Theater in the Woods on Tuesday, July 24th at 7pm. Matt joins a list of honorees that reads like an airshow hall of fame. He also becomes the first second-generation Barber Award winner. His father, Bobby Younkin, won the award in 2004.
Matt Younkin -photo by Jim Froneberger.
Matt is a third-generation pilot. His father Bobby was a world-renowned airshow pilot and grandfather Jim is known for designing the Century and Trutrak autopilots as well as being an antique aircraft restoration master. On his 16th birthday Matt soloed his grandfather's 1928 Travel Air 4000 biplane.
Growing up, Matt never had designs on being an airshow pilot and had plans for a corporate or airline career. But that all changed in the summer of 2005 when his dad was killed in an airshow accident in Canada. Matt knew he wanted to keep the family tradition alive and flew his first airshow in November of that year in the family Decathlon that his dad had made famous.
Matt Younkin in the Twin Beech -photo by Jim Froneberger.
Matt's ultimate goal was to bring his dad's famed Beech 18 back to the airshow circuit, and that goal was realized on April 17, 2007 when he debuted the Beech 18 act at Sun ‘n Fun. Matt had carefully reviewed old videotapes of his dad's Beech 18 performances and reverse-engineered the proper speeds and altitudes to recreate Bobby's thrilling aerobatics.
With the return of the Beech 18 show a big success, Matt wanted to create an act he could truly call his own. He outfitted the Beech 18 with over 50 externally visible lights, and his "Magic by Moonlight" night act was born at Sun ‘n Fun in 2008. Today Matt and the Twin Beech are one of the most in-demand acts on the airshow circuit, performing at over twenty venues each year.
The Bill Barber Award for Showmanship began in 1986, and is awarded to airshow performers or teams that have demonstrated great skill and showmanship. World Airshow News and the friends and family of the late Bill Barber present the award annually.
Past Bill Barber Award winners include:
- 2011 Rich and Dee Gibson
- 2010 Steve Oliver and Suzanne Asbury-Oliver
- 2009 Michael Goulian
- 2008 Bud Granley
- 2007 Dacy Family Airshow Team
- 2006 Danny Clisham
- 2005 Pietsch Airshows
- 2004 Bobby Younkin
- 2003 Jim LeRoy
- 2002 AeroShell Aerobatic Team
- 2001 Northern Lights Aerobatic Team
- 2000 John Mohr
- 1999 Dan Buchanan
- 1998 Patty Wagstaff
- 1997 Gene Soucy & Teresa Stokes
- 1996 Wayne Handley
- 1995 Bob Hoover
- 1994 Bob & Annette Hosking
- 1993 Red Baron Stearman Squadron
- 1992 Sean D. Tucker
- 1991 Julie Clark
- 1990 Leo Loudenslager
- 1989 Jimmy Franklin
- 1987 The French Connection
- 1986 Eagles Aerobatic Flight Team
For more information on The Bill Barber Award for Showmanship, contact Sandy Parnau, Publisher, World Airshow News at sandyparnau@gmail.com or 262-642-2450.