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 Paul RichfieldBy Fred George, in San Diego
Frustrated with waiting months for Avionics Displays Corp. (ADC) to deliver its flat-panel displays, Tucson-based Universal Avionics Systems Corp. (UASC) bought the company. Over the past two years, Norcross, Ga.-based ADC's development and production assets were stretched thin by long-term projects, delaying UASC's new family of LCD flat-panel displays for more than 12 months.

By Fred George, in San DiegoEdited by Paul Richfield
UPS-AT (nee II Morrow) has developed a Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS)-compatible GPS engine, one capable of improved navigational accuracy, integrity and higher signal availability than the current generation of IFR-certified GPS receivers. Developed in conjunction with NavCom Technology, a Redondo Beach, Calif.-based GPS engineering firm, the unit will equip UPS Airlines' entire fleet of 229 jet freighters, and integrate smoothly with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) hardware now being tested.

Edited by Paul RichfieldBy Fred George, in San Diego
Global Express operators will have the option of installing a BAe Systems (formerly GEC-Marconi) HUD2020 Visual Guidance System by September, according to Kevin Hoffman, chairman of Aerospace Concepts, a completion weight-reduction and consulting firm based in Montreal. The BAe Systems Head-Up Display (HUD) is offered as an alternative to the Sextant Avionique Head-up Flight Display System (HFDS), now Bombardier's factory-standard HUD option for the Global Express.