São José dos Campos, August 5, 2011 – Embraer will participate in the eighth Latin American Business Conference and Exhibition (LABACE), August 11-13, at Congonhas Airport (CGH), in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The Company will show the midsize Legacy 500 mockup with a near-production interior, alongside the entry level Phenom 100, light Phenom 300, and large Legacy 650 executive jets. On Wednesday, August 10, at 11:00 a.m., Embraer will host a press conference in the Santos Dumont conference room to present an update of its executive jets programs.
“LABACE offers a significant opportunity to bring the rapidly growing Latin American market up to speed on our executive jets and their award winning design and technologies,” said Breno Corrêa, Vice President, Marketing and Sales, Latin America – Embraer Executive Jets. “We are especially proud to show the mockup of our brand-new, clean-sheet midsize Legacy 500, which will feature full fly-by-wire technology, 5,560 kilometers (3,000 nautical miles) of range and Mach 0.82 cruise speed. We are also pleased to exhibit our entry level Phenom 100, which was the best-selling executive jet in 2010, and the Phenom 300 and Legacy 650.”
Several significant milestones have recently been achieved by the Legacy 500 program, keeping the schedule on track. In June, the last major piece of the fuselage arrived at the Embraer facilities in São José dos Campos, Brazil, enabling the completion of the center fuselage. Production engineers also successfully installed the aft pressure bulkhead, accomplishing this task in one-third of the time originally allotted. The next major step was to join the three fuselage sections: cockpit, center fuselage, and aft fuselage, which was achieved in mid-July. This is an important step towards the flight test program, which is expected to begin this year.
With the joining of the fuselage of the first Legacy 500 completed, work is well underway on the next phases of the assembly process. Engineers have begun installing harnesses and wiring for the aircraft’s components and systems. At the end of July, the fuselage was moved to the final assembly hangar where it is being prepared to receive the wing structure. In terms of the latest technologies, the forward-center and aft-center fuselage sections are made entirely of composite materials, and the production process utilizes robots and lean manufacturing techniques. Certification is expected for 2012.
