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
Based on Rockwell Collins’ Pro Line Fusion avionics, the G250’s new cockpit will feature one of Gulfstream’s most advanced versions of its signature PlaneView cockpit design. The standard package will include three, 15-inch flat-panel displays in the instrument panel, dual multi-function CDUs in the center console, glareshield-mounted standby multifunction controllers adapted from the G650 and a new flight guidance control panel and side-ledge-mounted handgrip cursor control devices.

Fred George
Cessna has chalked up more than 900 orders for its Citation 560XL-series midsize jets in the last 14 years, making it the all-time best-seller in this class. That’s an impressive benchmark considering that the XL’s airframe started life as a quick-to-market hybrid of the Citation III fuselage barrel and a modified, scaled-up Citation V wing. Clean-sheet purists scoffed at its humble origins, but they shuddered when it became a runaway best-seller 24 hours after it was announced at the 1994 NBAA Convention.

Fred George (Gaviao Peixoto, Brazil)
Late last July, this reporter became the first journalist to fly the Phenom 100. And as soon as the electrical power came on, it was apparent that the very light jet (VLJ) benefited from Embraer’s considerable experience as a seasoned jetliner manufacturer. Accompanied by senior flight test pilot Antonio Braganca Silva and flight test engineer Maximillian Kleinubing, we embarked upon a 2-hr. 44-min. evaluation flight in EMB500 serial No. 500-801, Embraer’s first flight-test aircraft.