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
There's a hot competition between Nextant Aerospace and Hawker Beechcraft to determine which firm can retrofit the largest number of Beechjet 400A and Hawker 400XP light jets with Williams International FJ44 turbofans to make them fly faster and farther, quieter and more economically. At stake: The two firms together might reap as much as $9-10 billion in sales revenues, assuming the retrofits attract one third of the combined fleet of nearly 590 aircraft.
Business Aviation

Jen DiMascio, Fred George
Deal would leave the defense business — which in recent years has been Hawker Beechcraft’s most lucrative — as either a standalone operation or to be sold separately.

William Garvey, Fred George
Embraer's foray into executive aviation is about to pass a significant milestone with the first flight of its Legacy 500 super midsize jet (above). Unlike the Legacy 600/650, which is derived from the ERJ 135 regional jet, the Legacy 500, and the Legacy 450, a shorter sibling also under development, are clean-sheet designs specifically intended for VIP service.
Business Aviation