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
For well under $15 million, you can buy a first-generation Gulfstream IV that can fly eight passengers 4,150 nm at 0.80 Mach and land with 200-nm NBAA IFR reserves. This veteran flagship of the Business Week 100 fleet introduced business aircraft operators to dozens of innovative features when serial number 1000 first entered service in 1987, including high bypass ratio Rolls-Royce Tay turbofan engines with a greatly reduced noise signature, a virtually all-glass cockpit and brake-by-wire (BBW).

Fred George
In spite of Eclipse Aviation’s difficulties, most operators remain enthusiastic about the Eclipse 500’s qualities. Almost all the operators we contacted took delivery of their aircraft before the May 2008 price increase to $2.15 million went into effect. Virtually all of them bought their aircraft for $837,500 to $1.6 million, plus inflation adjustments and options. Not unexpectedly, most of them said that acquisition price topped their list of favorite features.

Fred George
Think flying at 0.80 Mach is genuine jet fast? Falcon 10 and 100 operators might wonder if they left their gear down at that speed. They routinely blast past lesser marques while cruising at 480 to 490 KTAS. Only the potent Citation X flies faster. Dassault’s second business jet, the Mystère 10 or “Mini Falcon,” was designed in the late 1960s as a smaller, less expensive derivative of the Falcon 20.