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
Step inside the super-midsize Galaxy, or today's Gulfstream G200, and you might think you're inside a slightly shorter Gulfstream II, albeit one with a four-inch dropped aisle in the main cabin and smaller, but more numerous side windows. Superior cabin comfort was the prime goal of Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) engineers when they designed the aircraft in the early 1990s. Indeed, this airplane feels as though its designers started with a best-in-class cabin and then wrapped the rest of the airplane around it.

Fred George
Virtually all currently in production FAR Part 23 normal category turbine-powered business aircraft and Part 25 transport category airplanes are certified for Flight Into Known Icing (FIKI) conditions. Part 25 Appendix C establishes the icing envelope in which an aircraft must be protected, based upon the duration of the icing encounter, droplet size and ambient temperatures, among other factors.

Fred George
Luis Carlos Affonso, head of Embraer's Executive Jets division, played his cards very close to his vest at the 2007 NBAA Convention in Atlanta when he disclosed that Embraer -- in keeping with its promise to field a full line of business jets -- is studying two new midsize jet concepts. The two aircraft are intended to help fill the chasm between the $6.65 million, 1,800-nm Phenom 300 and $25 million, 3,300-nm Legacy 600.