Embraer has announced plans to reveal the first E190-E2 test aircraft to the public on 25 February 2016 in a ceremony staged at company’s final assembly complex in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil.
The ceremony comes roughly midway through the development program – or two and a half years after Embraer launched the program at the Paris air show and about two years before the scheduled entry into service in the first half of 2018.
First flight of the re-engined and re-winged E190 is on track for the second half of next year, says Paulo Cesar Sousa e Silva, president of Embraer commercial aircraft.
Flight control software is being evaluated at the company’s systems test rig in Eugenio de Melo, Brazil, he says. Meanwhile, the redesigned wings have been mated to the fuselage. The two Pratt & Whitney PW1900G geared turbofan engines are being installed on new wing pylons, he adds.
The E190-E2 will be followed into service by the stretched E195-E2 and the stretched E175-E2. The overall family has attracted 267 firm orders and 373 options and purchase rights so far. “We are quite happy with the number we have achieved,” Silva says.
Unlike the relatively straightforward re-engining projects ongoing for the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 Max, the E-Jet E2 family will feature a more radical departure from the baseline aircraft.
In addition to the new wings and engines, the new E190-E2 also features a full fly-by-wire flight control system.
A second E190-E2 test aircraft is now in final assembly. Major sections of the third prototype aircraft are now being built and will be shipped to Sao Jose dos Campos to enter final assembly “very soon”, Silva says.
The first flight for the first E190-E2 is scheduled for the second half of next year.
(Stephen Trimble - Flightglobal News)
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