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

Fred George (San Diego)
The flight deck, the nexus of carrier air operations, has been one of the most hostile and intense work environments in military aviation for the better part of a century. It makes possible the launch and recovery—along with the refueling, rearming and repositioning—of as many as 50 carrier-based aircraft at one time, all done inside the footprint of an average suburban strip mall.

Fred George (San Diego)
“Signal Charlie.” Those are the two words on the radio that student naval aviators most look forward to hearing for the first time. They are about to make their first landings on an aircraft carrier, thereby joining what carrier aviators consider to be aviation’s most exclusive club: pilots who have earned carrier qualification.

Fred George (San Diego)
The first hundred years of U.S. naval aviation have seen quantum leaps in technology, including the advent of jet propulsion, helicopters and nuclear power, plus integrated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance on the battlefront, and aircraft carriers with angled decks that permit simultaneous arrested landings and catapult takeoffs. What has not changed is the mission and the people, according to carrier aviators.