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 [email protected]
Turbine business aircraft are so reliable, passengers are so predict–able and ATC services are so dependable that it's easy to slip into a cozy cocoon within which you're completely isolated from possible weather, mechanical, operational or physiological contingencies. In reality, though, “what if” contingencies pop up with alarming regularity. Some result in fatal consequences.
Business Aviation

Fred George [email protected]
During the past decade, Cessna and Honeywell have struggled to grow Sovereign's Primus Epic avionics suite into a mature system. Block point upgrades have been slow in coming and much needed improvements have been released in dribs and drabs. The Phase II package, available as SB680-34-03, improves autopilot performance during approach, removes a CAS warning message when the APU is operated in flight and makes changes to the flight data recorder interface to certain flight control position sensors needed for JAR/EASA certification.
Business Aviation

Fred George [email protected]
Parts bin engineering long has been a strong suit of Cessna Aircraft and no aircraft better exemplifies that strategy than the Citation 560XL series. Created in the mid-1990s as a response to the clean-sheet, leading edge Learjet 45, the Citation 560XL features a shortened Citation 650 fuselage, a scaled up Citation V wing and newly introduced Pratt & Whitney Canada PW545 turbofan engines. Low-wing loading and a sporty thrust-to-weight ratio gave it the best runway performance in its class, with far better hot-and-high airport performance than the original Learjet 45.
Business Aviation