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
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
What's it like to pilot the world's first fly-by-wire (FBW) business jet? Dassault provided B&CA with an exclusive opportunity to find out firsthand when we belted into the left seat of the Falcon 7X at its Istres Air Base Flight Test Center for a two-hour demo flight in mid-July.

Fred George
The arrival of the Beech King Air 200 in 1974 sent shock waves throughout the turboprop industry, especially at Piper Aircraft where the Cheyenne II, a direct competitor for the Beech E90, had just made its debut. If Piper wanted to compete, it quickly would have to develop a much larger and more powerful model. Piper launched a clean-sheet turboprop development program that would become the PA-42 Cheyenne III in 1979.