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
Competition among transatlantic range business jets heated up when Embraer delivered the first Legacy 650 in December 2010. The new variant of the EMB-135BJ has an eight-passenger range of more than 3,800 nm, enabling it to fly nonstop from London to New York, perhaps even Paris to New York with favorable winds, weather and air traffic conditions. That range also bridges routes from Dubai to London, São Paulo to Miami or Singapore to Sydney. With one refueling stop, it can fly between New York and Shanghai, Dubai or São Paulo.

Fred George
Based on the original Legacy's Primus 1000 avionics package, Primus Elite features five, 8- by-7-in. LCD screens that replace the CRTs. The layout has left- and right-side PFDs and MFDs, along with a central EICAS. Upgrading to flat-panel screens makes possible the display of charts and data link weather, plus they generate considerably less heat and have longer service lives.

Fred George
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) grounded the EASA-registered Falcon 7X fleet last week after a report from Dassault Aviation regarding “an uncontrolled pitch trim runaway during descent” in one its fly-by-wire trijets in Malaysia on May 25. Dassault Falcon Jet has advised all other Falcon 7X operators to ground their aircraft under Emergency Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2011-0102-E, pending an analysis of the cause of the incident.