Embraer has no plans to rush the timeline for delivering the first E190-E2 regional jet in the first half of 2018, even the flight test programme remains ahead of schedule, a top executive tells FlightGlobal.
The first flying prototype made a debut appearance at the Farnborough air show only six weeks after achieving first flight. The second E190-E2 entered the flight test campaign on 8 July, and the overall programme so far has consumed less of the buffer the company built into the schedule, says Luis Carlos Affonso, senior vice-president of operations and chief operating officer for Embraer’s Commercial Aviation unit.
Those are all good signs for the debutante airliner, but Embraer will not accelerate the delivery schedule of the first E190-E2 even if programme stays ahead of schedule, Affonso says.
If the company still has weeks or months of schedule buffer leading up to first delivery, the programme will focus on increasing the maturity of the new technologies packed into the E190-E2, including the Embraer-developed fly-by-wire control system and Pratt & Whitney PW1900G geared turbofan engines.
“Hopefully, we’ll continue to be ahead of schedule to the end. We will use this extra time to increase the maturity, keep flying so you have even a smoother entry-into-service. The airplane needs to be ready, customer support and systems must be ready and the airline must be ready. So we don’t want to rush any of this,” Affonso says.
That cautious approach may reflect not only distant memories of Embraer’s delayed introduction of the original E-Jet family in 2004, but also the level of technology development required to field the second-generation.
Though summarised often as a re-engining project, the E2 version of the E-Jet is a bold project. In addition to the engines, Embrear is installing a new, high-aspect ratio wing, re-inventing the flight control system and tweaking the cross-section.
“It’s not a re-engining. It’s a new plane,” Affonso says.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
