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.
Goodrich says it is on track to FAA-certify its new SmartDeck cockpit display -- one of the first ``highway in the sky'' avionics platforms -- by early 2003. SmartDeck does away with traditional symbology, replacing it with a series of computer-generated window frames through which the pilot will fly a symbolic airplane over a realistic, shaded, 3-D terrain background. B/CA recently flew a prototype SmartDeck system in Goodrich's King Air 90, accompanied by demonstration pilot Todd Scholten and SmartDeck development engineer Roger Powers.
Raytheon Aircraft and Rockwell Collins have joined forces to sweep the clutter out of the Hawker 800XP cockpit. Indeed, were it not for the Hawker's familiar ``ram's horns'' yokes and distinctive glareshield shape, some might mistake the revamped layout as one belonging in an all-new aircraft. Four, 10-by-eight-inch flat-panel displays dominate the instrument panel of the Hawker 800XP fitted with Pro Line 21 avionics, replacing the old aircraft's high-tech-antique mixture of five small CRTs and almost two dozen ``steam gauges.''
Five years ago, if you asked any group of business aviation industry pundits about the prospects for the BBJ, few were upbeat, some were ambivalent and many outright negative. This 85-ton behemoth was too big, too conspicuous and too unwieldy, many said. They're eating their words now. Since launching the program with partner General Electric in July 1996, Boeing officially acknowledges 71 sales. By early 2002, insiders say, BBJ orders will top 100. This represents nearly one-quarter of all new, ultra-long-range business aircraft orders.
