At the end of 2008, Embraer certified the Phenom 100 executive jet and delivered the first units of the model. Delivering airplanes is an everyday affair for the world´s fourth largest aircraft manufacturer, but the development of the Phenom 100 has special meaning. After all, it is the Company´s first jet to be designed exclusively for executive use, since the Legacy 600 and the Lineage 1000 are based on commercial jet platforms. Even with the crisis faced by the business aviation segment, worldwide, in 2009, the development of the Phenom 100 and Phenom 300 models also represent Embraer´s commitment to the executive market, which was established in 2000, when the Company launched the Legacy 600 project, with the aim of becoming one of the biggest manufacturers in this segment. Today, less than a decade later, Embraer airplanes are operating throughout the world, and the executive line is one of the most modern and effi cient in the industry.
´´At the present time, we have three models in production and being delivered, which should increase to four, by the end of 2009, with the certifi cation of the Phenom 300,´´ says Luís Carlos Aff onso, Embraer Executive Vice President, Executive Jets. ´´Since 2005, when we launched the Phenom family, we have worked to show the market that we are committed to being a major player by 2015, when we will have six products being manufactured, covering practically all of the segments of executive aviation.´´
The portfolio of executive jets includes small aircraft for short fl ights, up to airplanes that have a range of over 7,700 km, like the Lineage 1000. The big differential of these jets is that they off er maximum comfort, performance, and efficiency in each category. Proof of Embraer´s success is reflected in its order book, which has accumulated hundreds of orders for the Phenom 100 and Phenom 300 jets.
´´The economy of using a corporate airplane has been of essential importance. Embraer´s family of Phenom jets offers low operating cost and excellent comfort characteristics and features,´´ says Keith Plumb, President and COO of Executive AirShare, a fractional aircraft ownership company in the United States that has firm orders for the Phenom 100 and the Phenom 300.
The new Legacy 500 and Legacy 450 models, both in the midsize category, will carry from eight to 12 passengers and should enter service in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Always focused on customer satisfaction and on supporting the growing fleet, Embraer invested US$ 100 million in building an extensive network of Company-owned and authorized service and training centers around the world, as well as in creating support programs for operators.
But it must be remembered that this involvement with executive aviation is nothing new. Actually, it goes back to Embraer´s first commercial success: the EMB 110 Bandeirante. In the mid-1970s, when it began to offer a civilian version of the airplane, Embraer began studies of new versions of the twin-engine aircraft, which included an executive transportation model, called the EMB 110E. The first executive Bandeirante was registered as PT-GJA. It was, basically, an EMB 110C with a cabin remodeled for six to eight passengers, better soundproofi ng and modifi ed avionics. Shortly after, the EMB 110J version incorporated modifi cations and improvements, but with similar engines and performance.
However, the EMB 121 Xingu turboprop was the first Embraer airplane for the executive transportation market, the first pressurized aircraft designed and built in Brazil. In France, for example, the Xingu has been used since 1983 to train pilots and the French Air Force will extend their operational life until 2025, by modernizing the electronic systems. This will keep the airplane in operation for 42 consecutive years, in demonstration of the quality of Embraer products.
A ´´heritage´´ of robustness and reliability is passed on to products of the new generation of airplanes, and it is one of the keys to success of Embraer´s executive jets around the world.