Embraer’s flagship programmes – the KC-390 and the E2 – may be absent from FIDAE, but the Brazilian manufacturer is represented with a Phenom 300 business jet and Brazilian air force A-29 Super Tucano trainer/light combat aircraft, one of 162 operating in the region.
The KC-390 is “at a crucial point of its flight-test campaign” and taking it to FIDAE “would have caused issues”, says Jackson Schneider, chief executive of Embraer Defence & Security.
Meanwhile, the first variant of the E2 – the re-engined successor to Embraer’s hugely successful E-Jet family – has just rolled out and not yet flown.
The prototype of the KC-390 had completed more than 100 flight hours by the beginning of March and the second test aircraft was due to take wing by early April.
As well as Brazil, the Super Tucano is flown by Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic.
The Phenom 300 light business jet is one of six types Embraer now offers, after entering the sector only at the beginning of the century.
Source: Flight Daily News
