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

Edited by Gordon A. GilbertFred George
Dassault Falcon Jet's 900B is getting a large-scale avionics upgrade and, in the process, will become the 900C. Certification efforts are underway using a Falcon 900B as the prototype. Customer deliveries are scheduled to start in early 2000 with serial number 180. (SN 179, the first actual 900C, will become a Dassault demonstrator.)

Edited by Gordon A. GilbertFred George in Nice, France
Tired of cruising along at 460 to 490 knots on those 12- to 14-hour international business trips? At the 22nd Dassault Falcon Jet Maintenance and Operations Symposium held in Nice, France in May, Serge Dassault, chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation, along with Bruno Revellin-Falcoz, executive vice president for research, engineering and cooperation, unveiled a scale model of a supersonic business jet that could cut travel times by one-third to one-half, compared to ultra-long-range, sub-sonic business aircraft.

Edited by Gordon A. GilbertFred George in Seattle
In late May, Boeing commenced four to six weeks of winglet feasibility tests with the goals of boosting the climb, cruise and fuel economy performance of the BBJ. If all goes well, the BBJ might lose its 10th belly fuel tank and still achieve a 6,200-nm maximum range.