Embraer Regional Jet
| ERJ 145 family ERJ 135/ERJ 140/ERJ 145 |
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| An ERJ-145 of Air France Régional | |
| Role | Twin-engine Regional airliner |
| National origin | Brazil |
| Manufacturer | Embraer |
| First flight | August 11, 1995 |
| Introduction | April 6, 1997 |
| Status | In service |
| Primary users |
CommutAir ExpressJet Airlines Envoy Air Trans States Airlines Piedmont Airlines |
| Produced | 1989–present 2003-2016 (China) |
| Number built | 890 as of January 2012 |
| Developed from | Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia |
| Variants |
R-99 and P-99 Embraer Legacy 600 |
The Embraer ERJ 145 family is a series of twin-engine regional jets produced by Embraer, a Brazilian aerospace company. Family members include the ERJ 135 (37 passengers), ERJ 140 (44 passengers), and ERJ 145 (50 passengers), as well as the Legacy business jet and the R-99 family of military aircraft. The ERJ 145 is the largest of the group. Each jet in the series is powered by two turbofan engines. The family's primary competition comes from the Bombardier CRJ regional jets.
The ERJ-145 was designed for a perceived new market for regional jet aircraft, where the increased speed, comfort and passenger appeal would outweigh the inherent fuel economy of the turboprop aircraft which were in service and in development. In order to reduce the development cost, it used the EMB120 nose and the same fuselage cross-section.
The ERJ 145 was launched at the Paris Airshow in 1989 as a stretched and turbofan-powered modification of the EMB 120 Brasilia. Key components of this design included:
By 1990, Embraer engineers found that results from wind-tunnel testing were less than satisfactory, and began considering a significantly different design from the EMB 120. The proposed modified design included a slightly (22.3°) swept wing with winglets, as well as engines mounted in underwing nacelles. This second design showed markedly better aerodynamic performance, but the combination of swept wings and wing-mounted engines required an unusually high (and therefore heavy) undercarriage.
The design evolved until late 1991, at which time it was frozen. Though the aircraft went through many alterations before it was finalized, it did retain a few of the original influences of the EMB 120 such as the three abreast seating (2+1) configuration which was a similar configuration used for the Embraer/FMA CBA 123 Vector design which never reached production. The key features of the production design included:
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