Log-in here if you’re already a subscriber Release DateMay 31, 2023Boeing takes Wisk fully under its wingPurchase a PDF of...
São José dos Campos, Brazil — Things move slowly in the airplane business. Politics, regulation and engineering tend to advance...
Denial of aviation is a weapon that predates the 21st century battlefield. Yet, with the return of war to Europe, it is also aviation’s Achilles’ heel. With it comes a cascading series of immediate and longer term consequences in the skies as commercial and industrial links are quickly broken after decades of cultivation following the fall of the Soviet Union.
Embraer and Boeing on July 5 formally unveiled their plans to establish a joint venture, carving out the Brazilian manufacturer’s...
Log-in here if you’re already a subscriber Release DateDecember 15, 2022Electric aircraft unknowns spur new approaches to leasingPurchase a PDF...
Boeing and Embraer are at the finish line on a commercial aerospace tie up that will reshape the global industrial...
The second in a two part series examining the strategic landscape for the remaining Embraer and Bombardier business aircraft units....
Log-in here if you’re already a subscriber Release DateMay 1, 2020Embraer can survive solo, but outlook mixed after Boeing breakupPurchase...
With this evaluation for its turboprop concept, Embraer is scratching at an entirely new strategic consideration for a multi-decade aircraft program. While large aircraft design has relied on the same fundamental type of fuel, coupled with successive generations of ever-improving engines, Embraer views its new 90-seater airframe as propulsion agnostic and a halfway step toward hydrogen. Positioning the engines on the rear of the aircraft might not produce the single most optimized design in 2027, but, in Embraer’s view, that deliberate non-optimization allows room for future evolution and growth.
Fundamentally, even with this new shape, Embraer’s tentatively designated TPNG 70 and TPNG 90 (Turboprop Next Generation) haven’t changed in their overall mission. The aircraft is still a 70 to 90-seat turboprop with a range “a little bit more than 800 nautical miles” but optimized for flights between 250 and 300 nautical miles and flown at speeds “faster than an ATR, but not as fast as the Dash 8-400,” said Souza, putting its cruising speed between 300 and 360 knots. Embraer’s goal is a 15% to 20% improvement in cash operating costs for its bigger TPNG 90 compared to the ATR 72-600.
When Embraer spinoff Eve on Dec. 21 confirmed plans to combine with Zanite Acquisition Corp., it became the sixth company in the urban air mobility space to link up with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Rather than speak to the continued strength of SPACs, however, the deal illustrates the funding vehicle’s decline as an ample source of outside capital — even as it cements Embraer’s strategy of using partnerships to expand into new markets.
In an extended interview, Arjan Meijer, Embraer's new Commercial Aviation CEO sat down with The Air Current to discuss what it wants in a partner and its path to a new turboprop.