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
When Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert flew on his business aircraft to court Lebron James back to the team, aircraft watchers tracked the aircraft’s progress at websites that use ADS-B data to monitor aircraft that don’t pop up on publicly accessible FAA air traffic feeds.

By Fred George
Second-generation VLJ outgrows adolescence
Business Aviation

By Fred George
S ixteen years after conception, a decade since its first flight and $1.4 billion dollars later, the Eclipse 500 finally is maturing into a full-fledged business jet, albeit the tiniest in current production. The world’s first VLJ was endowed with promising but untested DNA. As a result, it went through one of the most difficult and time-consuming development cycles in the history of business aircraft.