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

Edited by James E. Swickard By Fred George
Grob Aerospace officially launched its twin-turbofan SPn Utility Jet at June's Paris Air Show. The SPn, short for exponential possibilities to the nth degree, is no VLJ. It will offer a super-light-jet-size cabin with double club seating. Known internally as project G180, the aircraft will feature Grob's signature all-composite construction; twin 2,800-pound-thrust, FADEC-equipped Williams International FJ44-3A turbofans; and four-display Honeywell avionics that look a lot like APEX.

By By Fred George
In late April, B&CA was invited to be the first publication to fly the newly Transport Canada-certificated Bombardier Enhanced Vision System (BEVS). It was installed aboard a Global 5000, which along with a Global Express XRS, was one of the two test aircraft used for system development and certification.

Text by Fred George
Eight years ago, Vern Raburn, president and CEO of Albuquerque-based Eclipse Aviation, made the biggest gamble in light jet aviation since Bill Lear introduced the Learjet 23 in 1963. Raburn bet that folks would buy hundreds, if not thousands, of twin turbofan aircraft if they could be sold for less than $1 million. Best known outside aviation circles as a high-tech industry entrepreneur, Raburn is a strong believer in price elasticity, a concept he claims is often ignored in general aviation.