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
The results of the 2007 J.D. Power and Associates' (JDPA) Business Aircraft Customer Satisfaction Survey now have been tallied and they produced useful, but qualified, findings. Both JDPA and B&CA are part of The McGraw-Hill Companies. In this launch effort, B&CA assisted the polling professionals at JDPA in refining the questionnaire and interpreting some of the resulting data.

Fred George
If you fly an Aerostar with 350-hp engines, there isn't a general aviation piston-twin that can catch you and you'll even pull past some twin-turboprops. That's because when Ted Smith designed the sleek twin in the mid-1960s he intended it to be powered by either piston or jet engines and fly as fast as 430 KTAS.

Fred George
Larger, heavier, faster airplanes need considerably more capable wheel brakes and steering systems because the loads on them increase proportionately to weight and the square of the speed. The wheel brakes of a typical business jet must have 50 to 100 times the energy absorbing capacity of those of a light airplane. Powerful brakes, though, easily can overwhelm the friction of the tires on the runway, potentially resulting in complete loss of stopping performance or even a skid off the pavement.