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.

Articles

Fred George
Strap into the left seat of any new turbofan aircraft and you'll soon take for granted the care-free engine handling characteristics that the engine fuel controls provide. The latest generation of computerized engine controls handles virtually all routine functions and abnormal situations with the aplomb of a seen-it-all flight engineer. That frees up pilot attention to focus on flying the aircraft and managing its systems and avionics.

Fred George
Push up the thrust levers of the Hawker 900XP and you'd be hard pressed to recognize this aircraft is the direct descendent of the stately, though matronly DH 125, designed in 1960 by de Havilland but certified and put into production by Hawker Siddeley, its successor. Compared to its immediate predecessor, the Hawker 850XP, this latest Hawker needs 300 feet less runway for takeoff at sea level and has a 1,400 foot shorter takeoff field length when departing B&CA's 5,000-foot/ISA+20°C airport.

Fred George
I n the late 1980s, Russ Meyer Jr., then chairman of Cessna Aircraft, got tired of listening to all the "Slotation" and birdstrike-from-the-rear jokes about the company's popular Citation series. He pretty much put an end to them at the 1990 NBAA Convention, when he announced that Cessna would build the Citation X, at 0.92 Mach, the world's fastest business jet.