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
A s a key emerging safety technology in 21st century avionics, few developments can equal Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS), which provide a virtual VFR window on the outside world in conditions of visual obscuration or darkness, thus providing unprecedented situational awareness. Using SVS, pilots can spot terrain and obstacles, among other potential hazards, long before they might have otherwise placed their aircraft in jeopardy.

Fred George
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Fred George
T he Model 45 is the nicest handling Learjet ever built, plus it has modern systems, class-leading cruise speed and a comfortable cabin. Candidly, though, when it entered service in the late 1990s, it had more than its share of growing pains. And at the time, Bombardier's technical and product support just wasn't up to the challenge. A decade later, the Learjet 45 is maturing into a top-notch performer and Bombardier's product support has improved as well. In many ways, as a result, a used Learjet 45 is a better buy today than when it was new.