Embraer Legacy 500 Outperforms Expectations

I had the opportunity at EBACE 2016 in Geneva back in May to have a good look at Embraer’s Legacy 500 business jet. I sat i the cockpit with Demonstrator/Instructor pilot, Captain Jason McCann who graciously told me all about this marvellous new jet.  It will be on show at Farnborough Airshow in a few weeks too.

 The Legacy 500 is fly-by-wire and has substituted the conventional yoke/control column for side-stick, received European validation a year ago, will be the only model in Embraer’s seven-strong business jet stable to feature on the static display at Farnborough Airshow, where the company will also showcase a range of civilian and military aircraft.

 JetNet’s database records so far 29 Legacy 500s in operation worldwide, three of which are based in Europe. The UK is home to a single aircraft, operated by business aviation services company Centreline Aviation, talking to their commercial director, Phil Brockwell he told me the aircraft is performing a lot better than expected delivering lower fuel burns than flight planned.

 Embraer received a received a boost in sales when in May, one of their largest customers, Flexjet, began offering the Legacy 500 for transatlantic services, as part of its planned expansion into the European market later this year.

 The US fractional ownership company operates four Legacy 500s, and has an undisclosed number of aircraft on order.

 Embraer and Flexjet recently secured approval from London City airport for steep landing approach for the Legacy 500 and this will help increase sales further. Based in the UK capital’s financial district, the hub is regarded as one of the most popular destinations in Europe for business aircraft users.

Looking at it on the ramp, the Legacy 500 doesn't look very different from other aircraft out there. It's has a pointy end at the front and the tail in back. Mostly made of metal, with composites in various places around the airplane where composites make sense. The landing gear is fairly conventional, displaying a trailing link landing gear, on the mains.

 The airplane is powered by two Honeywell HTF7500E dual-FADEC turbo-fans producing 7,036 pounds of thrust a piece. These engines are not unique to the Legacy 500. They also power the Gulfstream G280, the Challengers 300 and 350, the Avro RJX and the 500's midsize sibling, the Legacy 450. With excellent fuel efficiency, on-condition maintenance and advanced digital control, it's easy to see why the HTF series engines are a popular choice for midsize and super-midsize jets.

 As it has with its other models, Embraer under-promised and over-delivered on the Legacy 500. Its range of 3,125 nm at long-range cruise is 125 nm greater than the target, and its high-speed cruise range (Mach 0.80) of 2,948 nm is about 150 nm better than expected. Takeoff and landing distances are also considerably better than published. The Legacy 500 takes off in just over 4,000 feet of runway, which allows it to operate from many smaller airports. It lands in around half that distance.

 Other bigger airplane features include single-point refueling, an externally serviced lavatory, and the future availability of a head-up display.

 The technological features inside the Legacy 500 are far superior to those in any other midsize private jet , or even super-midsize model. It's a full fly-by-wire (FBW) with next-generation avionics with huge displays, an almost paperless cockpit, advanced power management, envelope protection, and high efficiency fully automated engines. It has auto-throttles and brake by wire, and its flight stability mode takes much of the bumpiness out of what would be an otherwise turbulent ride.

 Instead of complex reversion logic employed by some manufacturers, the fly-by-wire approach that Embraer adopted is simple. There are two laws: normal and direct.

 Direct mode is an electronic interpretation of mechanical control of the airplane. Direct mode gives the pilot the feel of what the 500 would fly like if it were equipped with hydro-mechanical controls (it's not). This mode is the emergency fallback option. The jet still flies very well with it.

 The normal mode is what the Legacy 500 is in all the time, unless there are a series of extraordinarily unlikely equipment failures that render the FBW computer inoperative. It's still nice to know that direct mode works great if that were to happen.

 In normal mode the jet has all kinds of cool built-in safety features that were unheard of in any kind of private jet 10 years ago. In midsize jets, they are an absolute first.

 Normal mode protects against over-speed, overstress, overbank, under-speed, excessive yaw and more. The side-stick is employed by only one pilot at a time, which might take some getting used to for some pilots.

 The Legacy 500 has busted a niche. It is a midsize airplane in terms of range and price (right around $20 million), but it behaves in many ways like a super-midsize model. With a world-class cabin, class leading technologies and safety systems, and the support of a truly global manufacturer that seems to have committed to the North American market, the Legacy 500 has a lot going for it.

 The story doesn't end there. Embraer’s Legacy 450 is a slightly smaller model with less range with nearly all of the cool features of the 500 but a price of just $16 million. Embraer has just started delivering these too.

 So great option if you are looking at buying a mid-size cabin aircraft to take you across the Atlantic, Los Angeles to New York or from London to Dubai direct…

Fabrizio Poli is Managing Partner of Aircraft Trading Company Tyrus Wings. He is also an accomplished Airline Transport Pilot having flown both private Jets and for the airlines. Fabrizio is also a bestselling author and inspirational speaker & has been featured on Russia Today (RT), Social Media Examiner, Bloomberg, Chicago Tribune, Daily Telegraph, City Wealth Magazine, Billionaire.com, Wealth X, Financial Times, El Financiero and many other Media offering insight on the aviation world. Fabrizio is also regularly featured as an Aviation Analyst on Russia Today (RT). Fabrizio is also aviation special correspondent for luxury magazine, Most Fabullous Magazine. Fabrizio is also considered one of the world's top 30 experts in using Linkedin for business. You can tune in weekly to Fabrizio's business Podcast Living Outside the Cube available both in video & audio. You can also follow Fabrizio's aviation videos on Tyrus Wings TV.

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