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.
Edited by Paul RichfieldBy Fred George, in New Orleans
Photograph: The Falcon 2000EX will offer 25-percent more range than the standard Falcon 2000. Dassault Dassault Aviation's newest offering is the Falcon 2000EX, a 3,800-nm, transatlantic twinjet slated to enter service in mid-2003. Priced at $24 million in 2003 dollars, the Falcon 2000EX will have almost the same range and six-passenger, tanks-full payload as the $28 million Falcon 900C tri-jet, albeit with a 6.6-foot shorter cabin. With the introduction of the 2000EX, Dassault has a twinjet to compete with Bombardier's Challenger 604.
Edited by Paul RichfieldFred George, in New Orleans
Raytheon Aircraft plans to build the new, 2,000-nm-plus Hawker 450. Billed as the fastest, highest-climbing, largest-cabin aircraft in the light-midsize-jet category, the Hawker 450 will cruise at 0.80-plus Mach and feature double-club or center-club seating for eight in a stand-up cabin with 5.9-foot headroom, 6.0-foot width and 19.3-foot length. Positioned between Raytheon's Premier I and Hawker Horizon, the 450's main competitors will be Bombardier's 1,900-nm-range Learjet 45 and Cessna's 1,700-nm-range Excel.
Nestle into the cabin of a Galaxy and you might mistake it for a Gulf-stream II, if it weren't for the Galaxy's four-inch dropped aisle, plus the numerous and smaller cabin windows.
