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

Fred George (Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil)
With the Legacy 650, Embraer introduces an able entry to the long-range business jet market. This latest variant of the EMB-135BJ can carry eight passengers more than 3,800 nm, enabling it to fly nonstop from London to New York, Dubai to London, Sao Paulo to Miami or Singapore to Sydney.

Fred George
Tom Aniello, VP of marketing for Cessna, is leaving the company, effective immediately, as part of a shake-up of the aircraft manufacturer’s sales and marketing team, according to an internal email sent by Mark Paolucci, senior VP sales and marketing. The changes come a little more than a week after Textron’s first quarter 2011 earnings call disclosed that Cessna posted a $38 million loss during the first three months of the year.

By Fred George [email protected]
Honeywell's HTF7000, the 7,000-lb.-thrust class engine that powers the Bombardier Challenger 300 — with others soon to follow — now has amassed more than one million flight hours and operators say it's powerful, economical and, most importantly, reliable. The turbofan now meets or exceeds virtually all their expectations, even though it went through some minor teething pains during initial entry into service in mid-2003.