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)
GE Aviation has purchased Naverus Inc., a privately held Seattle-based company that designs Required Navigation Performance (RNP) procedures for aircraft operators, airlines and air traffic control agencies around the world, including the U.S., China and Australia. Financial details of the buyout, announced Nov. 23, were not disclosed.

Fred George
Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that its NetJets subsidiary suffered a decline in revenues of 42 percent, or $1.5 billion, during the first nine months of 2009, compared with the same period a year earlier, according to the latest Form 10-Q filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This mainly was caused by a 79 percent decline in fractional ownership sales and a 24 percent drop in flight operations.

Fred George
When Gulfstream announced the 7,000-nautical-mile range, Mach .85 cruise G650 in March 2008, it got the attention of product planners at Bombardier Business Aircraft in Montreal, according to company insiders. The G650 gives Gulfstream an aircraft with a larger cabin diameter than Bombardier’s top-line Global Express XRS, along with higher cruise speeds, shorter runway requirements, better fuel efficiency, higher typical operating altitudes and a lower cabin altitude.