A Sample Feature From Aviation News

Embraer – star across the southern sky

Above: Founded in 1969 and privatised in 1994, Embraer is a Brazilian success story epitomised by the successful E-170, seen here in the colours of EgyptAir, celebrating its 75th birthday this year. (Photos, Embraer).

Embraer sites its headquarters and main production and engineering facilities at São José dos Campos, in São Paulo state. It builds components and undertakes flight testing at Gavião Peixoto, also in São Paulo, with subsidiary Indústria Aeronáutica Neiva making light aircraft and components in Botucatu. Internationally, the Harbin Embraer joint venture assembles regional airliners in China; Embraer also maintains aircraft in the US with that country together with France, Singapore and China, home to commercial centres.

Initial designs
In 1954 Brazil’s General Command for Aerospace Technology (CTA) established the Instituto de Pesquisas e Desenvolvimento (IPD, Research and Development Institute). IPD worked on various aircraft programmes, most significantly a 1965 turboprop transport proposal, later developed into the IPD-6504 Bandeirante. On July 29, 1969, the Ministry of Aeronautics specifically created Embraer to build this aircraft. Developed as a 15-21-seat, twin-engine aircraft for civil and military roles, the Bandeirante was designated EMB-110 and boasted low operating cost and high reliability. The military YC-95 prototype first flew on October 26, 1968, and entered production the next year with deliveries to the Brazilian Air Force from February 1973. The passenger version flew in August 1972 and began commercial service from April 1973 with Transbrasil. 1975 saw the first exports, eventually expanding to include 36 countries. Production reached 500 by 1990.

In the 1960s the growth of agriculture led to the Instituto Tecnólogico de Aeronáutica (ITA, Aeronautics Technological Institute) developing the Ipanema agricultural aircraft. The Ministry of Aeronautics later transferred the Ipanema and Urupema glider programmes to Embraer. The initial Ipanema variant, the EMB-200, first flew in 1970 and Embraer began production of this type in 1972. In September 1978 the company unveiled the EMB-201 with a more powerful engine, new wing and greater capacity. Four years later production passed to Embraer’s newly-acquired Indústria Aeronáutica Neiva subsidiary. In 1992 the company revealed the more aerodynamic, higher capacity, more versatile EMB-202 while later developments included winglets, cabin air conditioning, lower-positioned wing and exhaust modification. The widespread availability of ethanol in Brazil led to attempts to introduce its use in gasoline-configured aircraft and to the development of an ethanol-powered model, certified by the CTA in October 2004. This became the first such fixed-wing aircraft in the world. Existing gasoline-powered Ipanemas can also be retrofitted to this standard. In March 2005 the company celebrated 1,000 Ipanema deliveries and production continues.|

In the 1970s, Embraer assembled the Aermacchi MB-326 as the EMB-326 Xavante for the Força Aérea Brasileira (FAB), with small numbers going to foreign customers, the company producing 186 aircraft over 11 years. In August 1974 Embraer received permission to licence produce various Piper light aircraft designs: the PA-28 Cherokee as the Embraer EMB-711 Corisco, EMB-711T Corisco Turbo and EMB-712 Tupi, the PA-34 Seneca as the EMB-810D, and the PA-31 Navajo as the EMB-820C. Responsibility transferred to Indústria Aeronáutica Neiva in March 1980.

Embraer used the EMB-110’s wing and engines with a new fuselage to produce the EMB-121 Xingu, the company’s first pressurized aircraft. The prototype first flew on October 10, 1976, with civil and military service from May 1977. The French Air Force remains the largest operator with 32 flying in the tri-service training role at Avord. In the late 1970s the company began the development of the 30-40-seat EMB-120 Brasilia to succeed the Bandeirante. First flying on July 27, 1983, commercial operations began in October 1985. The EMB-120 sold mainly in the US and the New World, production totaling 350. Although last produced in 2002, it shares the same fuselage and many parts of the current Embraer Regional Jet (ERJ) so remains available for order.

Above: An early leader in the use of ethanol fuel, Embraer’s most popular aircraft, the Ipanema was inherited by Embraer from Brazil’s Aeronautical Technology Institute and is an agricultural aircraft in every sense of the word. This is the 1,000th example.

Military moves
In the 1970s Embraer began development of a military aircraft to meet a Ministry of Aeronautics requirement and the EMB-312 Tucano basic trainer was the result, the first aircraft flying on August 16, 1980. Service delivery to the FAB began in 1983. The Brazilian air force obtained the aircraft in trainer (T-27) and light attack (AT-27) versions, while Shorts in the UK built a more powerful version for the RAF and for export to Kuwait and Kenya. More than 650 aircraft supplied to air forces internationally made it the most-produced turboprop military trainer in the world. This aircraft was further developed into the EMB-314 Super Tucano turboprop light attack/COIN/trainer aircraft for the Brazilian air force’s ALX requirement. The air force needed a long range, autonomous, day/night- and all-weather aircraft for operations from short runways in the Amazon. The aircraft first flew on June 2, 1999, with the two-seater following in October of that year, these designated AT-29A and -29B respectively in Brazilian service. The first of 25 AT-29 Super Tucanos began entering service in Colombia in 2006, tasked for training and attack, and the Dominican Republic ordered 10 aircraft. However, the presence of US systems onboard prevented a sale to Venezuela. Embraer considers the aircraft has good prospects in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East, most specifically Chile and the UAE.

Embraer joined the Italian team of Aeritalia (now Alenia Aeronautica) and Aermacchi in July 1981 to develop the AMX light attack/reconnaissance aircraft. The aircraft undertakes low altitude day/night missions and can use underdeveloped or damaged runways. An Italian-built prototype first flew on May 15, 1984, with the first FAB example flying on August 12, 1989. Development of the two-seat AMX-T attack-capable advanced trainer began in 1986 with a first flight in 1990 followed by service entry to both air forces. The follow-on AMX-ATA features improved avionics and weapons capability. Production totaled more than 200 aircraft, including trainers, but exports for the type have been limited to Venezuela which ordered 12 AMX-T/ATAs.
Embraer’s Northrop F-5BR upgrade of the Brazilian Air Force’s F-5 Tiger II fighters continues and includes modernised avionics, navigation, weapons systems, computer, radar and structural strengthening.

Above: Embrarer’s Sao Jose dos Campos headquarters presides over a company now employing almost 20,000 people with an order backlog of around $15bn, it is planning to break in to the lucrative military transport market.

Embraer Regional Jet
Embraer collaborated with Argentina-based FMA on the CBA-123 Vector 19-seat turboprop transport aircraft which first flew on July 30, 1989, but high cost led to its cancellation. A turbulent financial period for the company followed, leading to privatisation at the end of 1994. Aircraft development continued during the crisis but unitial designs for a new 45-seater jet met with little success until a rear engine layout was finally decided upon. Thus emerged the EMB-145, which first flew on August 11, 1995, and went on to sell remarkably well and boost Embraer’s performance. By mid-2007, the company had supplied over 900 ERJ-145s, including civil/business/military derivatives. First customer ExpressJet Airlines began receiving its aircraft from December 1996, its eventual 27-aircraft fleet making it the biggest user of the type. Embraer shortened the fuselage and derated the engine to produce the increase-ranged, 44-seat ERJ-140. The company aimed the aircraft at airlines in the US, which are legally limited in the number of 50-seaters they can obtain. The further-shortened ERJ-135 accommodates 37 passengers. Embraer will step up production of its ERJ-145 family from 45 in 2007 to 53 aircraft in 2008 and 2009, and to 51 in 2010. The Harbin Embraer joint venture assembles ERJ-145s, with a gradually increasing level of production, and may eventually export ERJs.

Embraer also developed military versions of the ERJ-145. The R-99 uses a 20% more powerful version of the Rolls-Royce AE 3007 engine and flew in 1999. The R-99A airborne early warning and control model employs the Swedish-developed Erieye radar, while the R-99B intelligence-gathering version deploys synthetic aperture radar, electro-optical and forward-looking infra-red sensors and a multi-spectral scanner. The FAB uses both types. The P-99 maritime patrol aircraft uses the R-99B sensors without multi-spectral scanner and the radar, while wing pylons accommodate torpedoes or anti-ship missiles. Mexico also uses this model.

Above: The two-seat Super Tucano, here operated by the Brazilian Air Force, emerged from Brazil’s Amazon Monitoring System project responsible for intercepting illegal aircraft incursions and patrolling the country’s border. Although bearing reference to the Tucano, it is a completely different aircraft. Below: An R-99A of the Brazilian Air Force complete with Erieye radar antenna mounted on the top of the fuselage is unique to this development of the ERJ.

For the rest of this feature please see the November 2007 issue.