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
LE BOURGET, France - Charles Edelstenne, Dassault Aviation's chairman and CEO, is celebrating qualified success as his firm rebounds with strong sales evenly split between its Falcon Jet and military product lines from the down times of the late 1990s and earlier this decade.

Edited by James E. Swickard By Fred George
Adam Aircraft has finally earned FAA Type Certification for its A500, a pressurized, carbon-fiber push/pull piston twin. Awarded May 11, the TC comes after a nearly two-year delay during which the company faced numerous unforeseen development and certification hurdles. Even with the TC, much work must be done prior to scheduled customer deliveries in the third quarter 2005. In its present state, the aircraft cannot be pressurized, so flight above 12,500 feet msl is unapproved without supplemental oxygen.

Edited by James E. Swickard Fred George
The last day of 2004 was an auspicious one for CEO Vern Raburn and hundreds of Albuquerque-based Eclipse Aviation employees. After several 80-hour work weeks during which they hammered out software glitches, struggled with cutting-edge starter/generator technology, coped with engine start fuel scheduling woes and fought numerous avionics battles, their efforts paid off. Assigned EJT (Eclipse Jet Test) 101, test pilots Bill Bubb and Brian Mathy lifted off Albuquerque-Sunport's Runway 17 at 10:16 a.m. for a 1+29 hour test flight in s.n.