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.

Articles

Fred George
Dassault has delivered more than 100 Falcon 7X trijets to operators and the fleet has logged more than 60,000 flight hours since beginning service in mid-2007, according to the firm’s records. Based on accumulated fleet experience, operators say the aircraft provides an impressive step up in range, speed and cabin comfort compared to Falcon 900 series aircraft, the models most respondents in our survey said they previously operated.
Business Aviation

Fred George
The availability of the second-generation EASy II avionics package for the Falcon 7X now has slid to the end of 2012. The basic package includes more-powerful graphics modules, among several other hardware and software upgrades needed to support its increased functionality.

Fred George
The relatively large size of long-range, widebody airliners affords operators the flexibility of providing various types of crew rest areas. The FAA’s crew duty and rest NPRM recognizes that different types of onboard crew rest areas afford different sleep opportunities on long-range aircraft. Even so, the FAA proposes to limit credit for sleep opportunity based upon the quality of the rest facility, recognizing that a private room at a ground layover point provides the best quality crew rest.