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
High-voltage AC, short for alternating current, electrical systems are installed in most large-cabin business jets because their electrically powered systems require more power than those of smaller aircraft. In AC systems, the positive and negative polarity alternates causing a reversal in current flow direction. Positive and negative polarity remains the same in a DC system and the current only flows in one direction.

Fred George
In the early 1980s, Dassault needed a large-cabin business jet to compete with Canadair's Challenger and the Gulfstream III. The solution was as easy as one, two, three. First, the company dusted off the widebody fuselage from its aborted Falcon 30/40 passenger jet design of the mid-1970s. Second, Dassault designers adapted the Falcon 50's new technology wing to the larger airplane. Third, Garrett Corp. had been developing more powerful, but fuel-miserly TFE731-5 engines for use aboard larger aircraft. Voila! The Falcon 900.

Fred George
What a difference 12 years has made in the evolution of the Pilatus PC-12. The newest Series 10, FAA type certified in December 2005 as the PC-12/47, has a 10,450-pound (4,700 kilogram) MTOW that enables operators to fill the tanks and fly seven passengers 1,450 nm, arriving with NBAA IFR reserves. That's a considerable upgrade in capability. When we first flew the Pilatus PC-12 several years ago, we were impressed with its roominess, cabin comfort and short-field characteristics.