Embraer’s rapid transition from military and airline aircraft manufacturing to a global leader business aircraft design and manufacturing is one for the history books. Coming seemingly out of nowhere to become one of the top players in the business jet industry with seven models ranging from the owner-flown Phenom 100 to the ultra-luxurious intercontinental Lineage 1000. I have seen part of the process firsthand having had the opportunity to participate in the Legacy 450/500 Man-Machine Interface (MMI) Advisory Board during the design of these two aircraft. Recently Ernest Edwards, Embraer Executive Jets President wrote the following about how Embraer has achieved this success.
Customer Driven New Technology Advances Raise The Bar In Executive Aviation
By Ernest Edwards, President, Embraer Executive Jets
The business aviation arena is a lot like other high-technology fields. We are always pushing the outside of the envelope. Today, however, these fast-paced changes are amplified as customers see advances in other industries and drive changes in business aviation.
The industry, then, is in the middle of a transition from its historical practice of providing improvements with derivative aircraft. Customers are demanding new, clean-sheet designs and that has quickened the pace of change in our industry. We now have more innovation within the industry, driven by newcomers but also by suppliers. That mandate is now helping customers transfer the technology and comfort they have created in their own homes to their aircraft.
Embraer Executive Jets considers itself one of those newcomers. We came to the industry a dozen years ago with a multi-faceted mission. That mission is to create a niche governed by providing features and new technology once only available in high-end aircraft to all levels of business aviation. That mission also requires class-leading performance, unmatched efficiency, reliability and maintainability that is part of our DNA, forged with our commercial aviation heritage.
With each of our jets, Embraer Executive Jets has broken new ground as illustrated by the changes to competitive aircraft and the more than a dozen international design and innovation awards.
Our mission was to produce an entire family of aircraft and we are the only business aviation manufacturer with such a wide range of products from the entry-level Phenom 100 to the ultra-large Lineage 1000. We also wanted to create new, clean-sheet designs for all classes because we wanted each to come to market with no compromises. These are tall orders.
That mission is also why the Legacy 500 is such a break-through aircraft and, with the mid-light Legacy 450, we are establishing a new paradigm in their respective categories. Together, these two aircraft will be the only aircraft in their categories. This is the only midsize with a full fly-by-wire flight control system thus improving safety and efficiency as well as increasing passenger comfort. They will be the first midsize jet with a full, six-foot, stand-up cabin with a flat floor. They will introduce a new swivel-seat, lie-flat technology. It has the longest range in its class at 3,000 nautical miles and the largest cabin in its class. And the Legacy 500 is the only midsize jet with a wet galley. It offers the best high-speed cruise and the best cabin pressurization at 6,000 feet to ease jet lag.
The Legacy 500 is expected to have the same disruptive influence on business aviation as that experienced by the telecommunications industry with the advent of the smart phone.
These advances in performance and passenger comfort, along with all the other changes we have brought to market results from intense Man-Machine Interface sessions in Brazil with all users – customers, pilots and maintenance personnel. At the beginning of a program and throughout development, we simply ask our user-partners to design their ideal aircraft. The success can be seen in the incorporation of the vast majority of their requests.
I was recently reviewing the history of Embraer Executive Jets and came to a new understanding of our role in the industry. When you live it, you often don’t appreciate it but I think what I’ve discovered is true.
Embraer Executive Jets is now recognized as a tipping point that introduced industry changes that otherwise might not have happened. These changes and the more than a dozen international design and innovation awards have validated the philosophy of expanding high-end, business aircraft features to all classes and indicate we are defining new standards. This means that we have gone from new-entrant, to industry player to industry leader in the short decade since the Legacy 600 entered service in 2002.
I also began to realize how much we have accomplished in the 12 years since we announced our entrance in the market and illustrates just how bold Embraer is. This has been one of the most volatile periods in business aviation history. Still, despite an historic recession, we forged ahead with four clean-sheet designs and moved the Embraer Executive Jet headquarters to Melbourne, FL, where we also established an assembly and paint facility for the entry-level Phenom and the light-jet Phenom 300 as well as a Global Customer Center for interior design.
We are now building the new Embraer Engineering and Technology Center USA which will contribute to even more advanced interior design for our aircraft. All those changes represent an investment of nearly $80 million. Coupled with that is the $230 million investment Embraer has made in two new composite and metal production facilities in Portugal and the conversion of the Harbin, China facility from commercial to executive jet production. It has been a remarkable decade for both executive jets and Embraer, a decade in which we have evolved from being a Brazilian company making regional jets to a global company manufacturing executive jets and defense and security applications taking our place on the global stage.
As we complete this transition to 21st Century, customer-driven aircraft, the industry will face rapid changes but the key to the future, we have found, is listening to the customer, developing the aircraft they helped design and supporting them to the utmost of our ability, thereby delivering on our promises which is the hallmark of any good business.