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
Thursday, July 13, 2006, was a historic day for Sino Swearingen Aircraft. Just before noon, we touched down at San Diego-Montgomery Field (MYF) after a five-hour, 44-minute nonstop flight from New York's Westchester County Airport (HPN), marking the first time the SJ30-2 had flown coast-to-coast across the United States. It was also the first time since the introduction of the Learjet 36 in 1974 that a new, regular production light jet demonstrated a New York-to-California nonstop range capability.

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
Aircraft hydraulic systems were developed in the early 20th century as a practical means of transmitting robust mechanical power generated by a pump, usually driven by an engine, to a motor or actuator several feet away. Newly developed "heavy lifting" functions, such as actuating landing gear and flaps, required more mechanical muscle than could be supplied by electric motors or actuators of acceptable weight or size.