Fred George

Chief Aircraft Evaluation Editor

San Diego, CA

Summary

Fred is a senior editor and chief pilot with Business & Commercial Aviation and Aviation Week's chief aircraft evaluation pilot. He has flown left seat in virtually every turbine-powered business jet produced in the past three decades.

He has flown more than 195 makes, models and variants, ranging from the Piper J-3 Cub through the latest Boeing and Airbus large twins, logging more than 7,000 hours of flight time. He has earned an Airline Transport Pilot certificate and six jet aircraft type ratings, and he remains an active pilot. Fred also specializes in avionics, aircraft systems and pilot technique reports.

Fred was the first aviation journalist to fly the Boeing 787, Airbus A350 and Gulfstream G650, among other new turbofan aircraft. He’s also flown the Airbus A400M, Howard 500, Airship 600, Dassault Rafale, Grumman HU-16 Albatross and Lockheed Constellation.

Prior to joining Aviation Week, he was an FAA designated pilot examiner [CE-500], instrument flight instructor and jet charter pilot and former U.S. Naval Aviator who made three cruises to the western Pacific while flying the McDonnell-Douglas F-4J Phantom II.

Fred has won numerous aviation journalism awards, including NBAA’s David W. Ewald Platinum Wing Lifetime Achievement Award.

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Articles

By Fred George
Designers attempt to give exceptional capabilities in all areas, including price, but the laws of physics, thermodynamics and aerodynamics do not allow one aircraft to do all missions with equal efficiency. Tradeoffs are a reality of aircraft design.
Business Aviation

By Fred George
Robert Bass, chairman of Aerion Corp., and T. Allan McArtor, chairman and CEO of Airbus Group North America, celebrated a joint venture that will boost development of the AS2, the first supersonic business jet. It also will give Airbus complete access to Aerion’s broad range of proprietary design tools, including its supersonic natural laminar flow airfoil (SNLF) designs. “We are delighted to formally launch our partnership with Airbus to launch the AS2,” says Bass. “We are aerodynamicists. Airbus can provide systems design and certification.”

By Fred George
Wednesday, Ed Bolen, NBAA president and CEO, presented 92-year-old RA Bob Hoover with the association’s 2014 Meritorious Service to Aviation Award, an honor befitting him who General James Doolittle lauded as “the greatest stick and rudder man who ever lived” and who has inspired millions of young people with his air show performances. Previous winners include Capt. Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon; the Tuskegee Airmen; Clay Lacy; James D. Raisbeck; and Serge Dassault, among others.
NBAA