Business Aviation

The Embraer E-Jets are a series of narrow-body, twin-engine, medium-range, jet airliners produced by Embraer, a Brazilian aerospace conglomerate that produces commercial, military, and corporate aircraft. Announced at the Paris Air Show in 1999, and entering production in 2002, the aircraft series has been a success. As of September 30, 2010, there is a backlog of 245 firm orders for the E-Jets and 747 options. The manufacturer reported that 671 units had been delivered by September 30, 2010, and predicted that by the end of 2016, more than 1,100 units would be delivered.

The E-170/E-175 family is the smaller of the two E-Jet families. The E-170 and E-175 directly compete with the Bombardier CRJ-700 and Bombardier CRJ-900, respectively. They also loosely compete with the turboprop Bombardier Q400. It also seeks to replace the market segment occupied by earlier competing designs such as the BAe 146 and Fokker 70. The 170 and 175 are powered with GE CF34-8E engines of 14,200 pounds (62.28 kN) thrust each.

The Embraer 170 was the first version produced. The prototype was rolled out on 29 October 2001, with first flight 119 days later on February 19. The aircraft was displayed to the public in May 2002 at the Regional Airline Association convention. After a positive response from the airline community, Embraer launched the E-175. First flight of the stretched E-175 was on June 2003. Certification for the 170 took nearly 2 years after the public debut; delivery of the first E170 aircraft to the launch customer LOT Polish Airlines was in March 2004. The first E-175 was delivered to Air Canada and entered service in July 2005.