Embraer: Brazil’s Regional Jet Giant

In 1969, Brazil had almost no aircraft industry to speak of. Today, if you’ve flown a short regional route in the United States or Europe, there’s a fair chance you were on a Brazilian-built jet. That transformation is the story of Embraer, now widely described as the world’s third-largest commercial jet manufacturer.

A government start-up

Embraer (Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica) was founded on 19 August 1969 in São José dos Campos, a city near São Paulo already home to Brazil’s aeronautical institute. It was backed by the Brazilian government, and its first leader, an air force engineer called Ozires Silva, had a clear idea: Brazil, a huge country with poor roads to many towns, needed small, tough aircraft that could use basic airstrips.

Embraer’s first product delivered exactly that. The EMB 110 Bandeirante (“pioneer”) was a twin-turboprop carrying 15 to 21 passengers. It sold well in Brazil and then abroad, including to commuter airlines in the United States and Europe, proving a Brazilian aircraft could compete internationally.

Near collapse, then the regional jet boom

The early 1990s were hard. Brazil’s economy was struggling and Embraer was losing money. In 1994 it was privatised, and its new owners made a decisive bet on a new type of aircraft: the regional jet, a small airliner with jet speed and comfort for routes too thin for a 737 or A320.

The result was the ERJ 145, a 50-seat jet based partly on the earlier Brasília’s design, which entered service in 1996. US airlines were expanding regional networks feeding their big hubs, and the ERJ 145 and its smaller siblings sold in large numbers.

The E-Jets: a family that grew up

Embraer’s next step was bigger. The E-Jet family, the E170, E175, E190 and E195, carries roughly 70 to over 120 passengers. It entered service in 2004 and gave passengers something regional jets had lacked: a proper four-across cabin with no middle seat. The E175 became the workhorse of US regional flying, while airlines in Europe and elsewhere used the larger models on busier routes.

A second generation, the E2, arrived from 2018 with new wings and geared turbofan engines for much lower fuel burn. The E195-E2 competes directly with the Airbus A220, and our encyclopedia compares the two head to head.

The Boeing deal that never happened

In 2018 Boeing agreed to take an 80% stake in Embraer’s commercial aircraft business, a move to answer Airbus’s takeover of the CSeries. In April 2020 Boeing cancelled the deal. Embraer, which had spent heavily preparing for it, remained independent, and it has since continued developing its own products, including the C-390 military transport and electric air-taxi work.

Sources & Further Reading

• Embraer — Wikipedia ↗
• About Embraer — Embraer ↗
• Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante — Wikipedia ↗
• How Embraer was born — Simple Flying ↗