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.

Read more

Articles

Fred George
By the mid-1970s, the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT-6 was installed on all King Air models, including the newly introduced 100 series. Concerned about its reliance on a single source for motive power, Beech Aircraft decided to pursue a short-lived policy of "engine diversity" to spur competition. Accordingly, the company launched development of a second King Air 100, one to be powered by a pair of 715-shp Garrett AiResearch TPE331-6 engines.

Fred George
Swearingen claims that the cabin of the SJ30 is 150 inches long and 60 inches in diameter. In reality, though, the cabin measures 4.5 feet high by 4.3 feet wide, thus it's slightly smaller in cross section than a legacy Learjet but a touch bigger than the Citation Mustang. The distance from cabin/cockpit divider to the aft cabin is 11.6 feet with a 7.7-foot-long main seating area. There are five 9.3-inch-wide by 12.5-inch-tall squared-oval windows on each side of the cabin. Each has a slide-lever operated window shade.

Fred George
xyz