Fred George

Chief Aircraft Evaluation Editor

Redmond, Oregon

Summary

Fred formerly served as senior editor and chief pilot with Business & Commercial Aviation and as Aviation Week & Space Technology's chief aircraft evaluation pilot. He has flown left seat in virtually every turbine-powered business jet produced in the past three decades. He now is managing member of Fred George Aero LLC of Redmond, Oregon.

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

By Fred George
Business jet apartheid remained the dominant theme in 2013, as it has for the last five years since the world economy struggles to recover from its deepest downturn in eight decades. Most long-range, large-cabin business aircraft manufacturers flourished while most light and midsize jet makers floundered. Total jet deliveries stabilized at 678, essentially in line with deliveries a decade ago, according to GAMA statistics.

Fred George [email protected]
P180 Avanti and Avanti II aircraft are the flying Ferraris in a turboprop world awash in airborne Fiats and Fords. They soar as high as FL 410, fly as fast as 400 KTAS and sip jet fuel. Their cabins provide midsize jet passenger comfort and interior sound levels are as low as some older light jets. They can fly six passengers 1,300 nm in less than four hours and consume less fuel than any other pressurized, twin-turbine aircraft.
Business Aviation

Fred George [email protected]
There now are more than 50 Gulfstream G650 jets in service, an impressively large number of new aircraft deliveries for just over one year of production. Operators say the airframe, engines and basic systems have been remarkably trouble free, resulting in near flawless dispatch reliability. That's an impressive milestone as the G650 is the first completely clean-sheet Gulfstream since the 1967-vintage GII, doubly so because of the reliability of early serial number airplanes.
Business Aviation