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, Kerry Lynch
The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) is seeking a compromise to FAA’s proposed ban on Residential-Through-The-Fence (RTTF) airport agreements at federally funded airports, saying it is an issue of public airport access. But the National Air Transportation Association (NATA) backs the proposed policy for new agreements, saying the benefits of such accords “are far outweighed by the risk posed to the long-term usability of airports.”

Fred Georgefred_george@aviationweek.com
T here are more than 100 Piaggio P180 Avanti II aircraft in service and they’ve logged more than 200,000 flight hours by some estimates, as of late August 2010. That’s an impressive number for less than five years of production, considering that only 105 of the original P180 aircraft were built between 1990 and 2005.

Fred Georgefred_george@aviationweek.com
The G650 is arguably Gulfstream Aerospace’s most ambitious technological leap since Grumman, the line's progenitor, introduced the GII in 1965. The newest, top-of-the-line Gulfstream will cost nearly $1 billion to bring to market, by some industry estimates. In return, the G650 will offer passengers the largest cabin of any purpose-built business aircraft yet introduced. It will have the highest cruise speeds, longest range and best fuel efficiency of any business aircraft cruising at Mach 0.85.