In more recent times, a number of these feeder airlines have began to operate the Brasilia under their own name on their own routes, whilst operating newer and larger regional jets on the routes that the Brasilia used to serve. In Europe, however, the Brasilia was operated by the regional subsidiaries of major European airlines on their regional routes, such as Air France’s Régional or Lufthansa’s CityLine. This was mostly the case in North America. Here, the EMB-120s were owned and operated by small, independent airlines, but flew under the name of a more established airline such as United. In fact, at its height, the EMB-120 was operated under the names of almost all major airlines in Europe and North America!įor the most part, these EMB-120s were operated by feeder or commuter airlines on behalf of major airlines. Whilst Atlantic Southeast Airlines would be the EMB-120’s first operator, it was by no means the only operator. Operational Historyįollowing the Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia’s first flight on July 27 1983, the prototype would be put on display at Embraer’s main headquarters, with the Brasilia itself entering service with Atlantic Southeast Airlines, in October 1985.įrom here, the Brasilia would go on to have quite an interesting operational history… Airline Since the EMB-120’s introduction, Embraer has released a number of other variants of the Brasilia, mostly extended range and cargo variants of the standard EMB-120. From here, it would receive its type certifications from most of the world’s major aviation regulators over the course of the rest of 1983 and the start of 1984. The Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia would first fly on July 27 1983. On top of this, they would also completely redesign the fuselage in order to make it more aerodynamic (and thus fuel-efficient!) To do this, Embraer invested heavily in the more fuel-efficient Pratt & Whitney Canada PW118 line of turboprop engines. In order to be more appealing for North American and European airlines, Embraer had to increase the speed, service ceiling and range of the Brasilia, as this increased the number of routes North American and European airlines could use the aircraft on. After realizing this would be impossible, Embraer scrapped the idea, giving the EMB-120 a 100% fresh design. Initially, Embraer had hoped to keep a large amount of part commonality between the EMB 110 and EMB-120. The name that won would be Brasilia, after the Brazilian capital.Īs such, when the aircraft was revealed to the public, it would be revealed as the Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia. However, believing that “Araguaia” would be too hard for non-Portuguese speakers to say, Embraer held a naming contest with its engineers for a new name. In mid 1979, Embraer would announce the develop of this aircraft to the world. Hearing this, and wanting to expand into the North American and European markets, Embraer began to play around with designs, before officially starting development many months later… Developmentįor several months prior, Embraer would begin development of what they called the EMB-120 Araguaia (named after the famous Brazilian river). Thanks to this, the EMB 110 sold well over 500 times!īy the late 1970’s, many operators of the EMB 110 began demanding a larger turboprop, one that was both wider and longer than the EMB 110 they loved so much. It was small, easy maintain, cheap to acquire and operate, relatively fast and passengers loved it. Seeing this, then-relatively unknown Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, Embraer, designed and built a cheap, 15-21 passenger turboprop airliner variant of their Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante military transport, with it entering service in 1973.Īlthough small in today’s terms for a regional airliner, the EMB 110 was exactly what many of these airlines were looking for. Whilst regional jets did existed, they were quite expensive and almost impossible for these newer airlines to acquire without the financial backing of an extremely wealthy financier or an extremely generous loan. Over the course of the late 1960’s and 1970’s, whilst the jet craze of the 1950’s was still in full swing, the concept of regional and feeder airlines became quite popular, with hundreds being set up during this time. Before producing regional jets, Embraer produced regional turboprops, with their most famous being the Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia.ĭespite selling 354 times and being loved and used by airlines all across the world, many of the Brasilia’s passengers absolutely hate the jet… Pre-Embraer EMB-120 Today, Embraer is famous for its regional jets, primarily its ERJ, E-Jet and E-Jet E2 families.
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