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
Readers have frequently asked us if we had one, overall favorite airplane. That's a tough call, but the Pilatus PC-12 ranks near the top of the list. This versatile single-engine turboprop has a slightly larger cabin than a Beech King Air B200, cruise speeds of a King Air C90GT, cabin sound levels that rival those of some turbofan aircraft and impressive short-field performance.

Fred George
Could reengining be the fountain of youth for aging business jets? Only a few seconds after we pushed the throttles up to the forward stops for takeoff aboard Clifford Development's reengined Citation II flying test bed, it was quite obvious that this 19-plus-year-old light jet workhorse was feeling its oats, almost as if it were a CJ3 colt.

Fred George
Take a close look at our May 2007 Purchase Planning Handbook. Virtually every new production turbine aircraft is equipped with EFIS and most have large-format, flat-panel LCDs. Steam gauges are out. Wall-to-wall glass is in. For older business aircraft fitted with electromechanical flight instruments or small-format CRT EFIS, a flat-panel upgrade can provide a wealth of new graphics features and functions, such as data link weather, electronic charts, high-resolution TAWS imagery, video cam/IR sensor display and the relative position of other air traffic.