Embraer has rolled out another updated version of its Phenom 100 light jet, giving the smallest executive aircraft in its portfolio an overhauled cabin and new avionics features, including a runway overrun awareness system.
The Brazilian manufacturer is introducing those and other changes with the Phenom 100EX, the first of which is set to be delivered in the fourth quarter, Embraer said on 9 October.
“We have revamped the complete interior,” says Jay Beever, Embraer’s vice-president of design operations. “The seats got wider. The aisle got wider. The headliner got taller. And we didn’t change the fuselage.”
Sao Jose dos Campos-based Embraer, which assembles Phenoms in Melbourne, Florida, has priced the 100EX at $5 million. The first of the type – the jet scheduled for delivery this year – will remain with Embraer as a customer demonstrator aircraft. Customer deliveries are expected to begin in 2024.
Embraer plans to display a 100EX at the NBAA business aviation exhibition in Las Vegas this month.
Phenom 100s can be flown by single pilots and carry five passengers in typical configurations but can accommodate up to seven passengers.
Embraer launched the Phenom 100 programme in 2005 and last updated the aircraft in 2016 when it rolled out the Phenom 100EV variant, with higher-thrust engines and the addition of Garmin G3000 avionics.
The 100EX will retain the same twin 1,730lb-thrust Pratt & Whitney Canada PW617F1-E engines as the 100EV, and offer the same 1,178nm (2,182km) range with four occupants.
“This product reimagines the entry-level flight experience, offering enhanced comfort, empowering pilots and enriching journeys,” Embraer Executive Jets chief executive Michael Amalfitano says.
New with the 100EX is a standard-equipment stabilised-approach system that monitors the jet during approach and warns pilots of abnormal conditions.
The 100EX has a new optional feature called Runway Overrun Awareness and Alerting System (ROAAS). During approaches, the technology – which employs AI – analyses variables like environmental conditions and aircraft speed, altitude and attitude. It then predicts how much runway distance the aircraft will require and warns pilots of possible overruns.
Embraer director of market and product intelligence Alvadi Serpa calls ROAAS particularly valuable because the Phenom 100 is a single-pilot aircraft. The company has offered ROAAS on its larger Phenom 300, also a single-pilot aircraft, since 2020.
“It works as an additional pilot [during] a very critical phase of the flight,” Serpa says. “It will let the pilot know whether he’s well-positioned to stop the aircraft on the available runway.”
Another change gives customers the option to equip the 100EX with Garmin’s Flight Stream 510 system, which allows the wireless transfer of data between personal electronic devices and the G3000 avionics suite.
Other new features include optional weather-safety technologies, including a wind-shear prediction system and a “3D volumetric weather feature” that can warn pilots of threats such as lightning and hail, says Serpa: “We are working to make the pilots’ lives better and easier, and the operation as a whole safer.” The pilot seats also now have more tracking distance, and a stabilised approach technology.
Beever says the 100EX’s cabin stands out, noting Embraer equipped it with features found on its larger jets. Engineers also designed the 100EX to be easily maintained – meaning, for instance, that cabin systems are simple to access.
“It’s not just about being comfortable sitting in a seat. It’s also about, can I fix it easily?” says Beever.
Compared to the 100EV, the 100EX has a wider aisle because the seat armrests now retract into the seats, freeing up space, says Beever. And those seats are redesigned to be 2in (5.1cm) wider where they meet passengers’ shoulders, larger headrests and more cushioning where they meet passengers’ knees.
The 100EX’s cabin has 1in more headroom than the 100EV thanks to headliner changes and redesigned air vents, also called “gaspers”, Beever says.
To further improve the 100EX’s cabin spaciousness, Embraer reduced the width of the two bulkheads behind the pilot seats. Now, those bulkheads do not extend as far into the centre of the cabin, which helps “bring the pilot into the cabin with his friends”, says Beever.
“When you’re on autopilot and you want to talk to your wife or your friends or your husband, you can. It’s a completely different interior experience environment because of the cockpit bulkhead modification.”
Embraer had hoped to eliminate the bulkheads entirely, but that idea proved unfeasible due to certification rules.
The 100EX also has a redesigned cabin table that provides 35% more flat-table space than previously – enough to accommodate two place settings and a tablet computer, Beever says.
Embraer gained that space by making the table lid – which hides the table when stowed – lie flush with the table when the table is out, just as on the Phenom 300. As previously designed, the lid sat atop the table.
In overhauling the cabin, Embraer managed to eliminate 190lb (86kg) of weight, Beever says.
He also notes that the changes, and tweaks to the 100EX’s cabin-side ledge, mean all Embraer executive jets (including both Phenom models and the Praetor 500 and 600) now have the “same functional systems”.
Video source: Embraer
