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 fred.george@aviationweek.com
Pilatus believes the aircraft will find a home with cargo, medevac, commuter and even government special missions operators, along with its PC-12's historical customer base.
Business Aviation

Graham Warwick, Fred George
Pilatus Aircraft opted for a clean-sheet design of its new PC-24 business jet after ruling out the Grob SPn-180, says Chairman Oscar Schwenk. During the preliminary design phase, Schwenk says that Pilatus was invited by the German government to bid on the SPn-180 program from bankrupt Grob. He was tempted because he says he has great respect for Dr. Burkhart Grob as an engineer. “I put 40 top people to work for three weeks studying the program. But Grob never built a production conforming prototype. There was no configuration control.
Business Aviation

Graham Warwick, Fred George
Embraer President and CEO Frederico Fleury Curado is keeping the door open to a possible helicopter venture in the future even though the teaming agreement with AgustaWestland unraveled. In April, Embraer and AgustaWestland dropped plans to create a joint venture to produce helicopters in Brazil. “We had a memorandum of understanding, but we could not come to terms on fundamental points. It was very peaceful; we agreed to disagree,” he says. But “the business opportunity is still there” to produce helicopters in Brazil, Curado says.
Business Aviation