Embraer’s Praetor: Disruptor, Devolver or Derivative?
Arguably, the big news from the annual NBAA event in Orlando on 16-18 October was the glitzy launch of Embraer’s “new” Praetor 500 and Praetor 600 jets to the Midsize and Super-Midsize segment.
The inverted commas reflect some media comment that both “new” aircraft offer not much more than souped-up engines, an improved fuel capacity, Tron-Legacy style winglets and cosmetic (if significant) cabin improvements to the Legacy 450 and Legacy 500 models. (e.g. Flight Global called the Praetor family “a notable upgrade” on the Legacy 450/500.)
The much-repeated “Disruptive Aircraft” marketing phrase used by Embraer establishes a worthy challenge to the Big 4 of Gulfstream, Bombardier, Textron and Dassault Falcon in this very competitive market segment. It’s also sending a clear signal that the Embraer innovations in Fly-By-Wire cockpit technology and the use of the latest cabin materials and products (e.g. Carbon Fiber cabin tables and latest ground-to-air connectivity system) is their vision of how future business jets will evolve. Supported by the all-important and very tasty range improvement promise from extra fuel tanks in both models, the Praetor family look and sound very impressive.
Embraer CEO Michael Amalfitano’s Aviator shades and accompanying Top Gun soundtrack undoubtedly captured the imagination and the Praetor launch event, some two days prior to the formal opening of NBAA itself, certainly stole the pre-show headlines, even if you’re still torn between Goose and Maverick.
Perhaps surprisingly, the NetJets/Cessna announced “order” for 325 Longitude and Hemisphere jets was tempered by the fact that the purchase deal is not yet finalised, even if Scott Donnelly from Textron and Adam Johnson from NetJets seem very confident it will happen. With NetJets having just placed an order for it’s 100th Latitude and with a strong track record from both companies in terms of completion of previous large order announcements at business aviation shows such as NBAA, we can expect further news on the mammoth NetJets/Cessna order before the EBACE 2019 show, scheduled for 21-23 May 2019 in Geneva.
By co-incidence, we’re told the Praetor 600 will be certified and enter into service around the same time as EBACE 2019, followed by the Praetor 500 in Q3 2019.
In the meantime, enjoy the Need for Speed and the er…Embraer version…of Top Gun.
