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
Beechcraft veteran Randy Groom was chosen last week by Piper Aircraft CEO and President Kevin Gould to be the manufacturer’s new executive vice president of sales, marketing and customer support, effective June 1. Piper began an extensive search to fill the opening in its senior leadership team when Robert Kromer, former VP sales and marketing, left the organization in late 2009. Groom will concentrate on boosting sales and enhancing customer satisfaction, among other tasks, capitalizing on his three-plus decades of experience in general aviation.

Fred George
Advance the thrust levers of the Hawker 900XP and you’d be hard pressed to recognize it as the 19th iteration of the venerable DH-125, first produced in 1964 by Britain's Hawker Siddeley. With the 900XP, fill the tanks and the seats and depart from a 5,000-foot runway. No other midsize aircraft has such range/payload flexibility. At MTOW, it will climb directly to FL 410 in 25 minutes, fly eight passengers more than 2,700 nm and land with NBAA IFR reserves.

By Fred George [email protected]
Spring is here and with this year’s El Niño conditions, some of the most extreme weather hazards could develop now and this summer, including massive thunderstorms and severe icing. Warmer weather fires up nature’s atmospheric heat engine, the solar-powered machine that uses water vapor, lift, differential temperature and instability to create potentially the largest and most violent storms of the year.