Embraer Cuts First E2 Metal

Embraer started fabricating parts for its new E190-E2 on Friday, when it cut metal on the first prototype’s wing stub forward pressure bulkhead at its Évora plant in Portugal.

“The production of this first part, on schedule, is an important milestone in all aviation programs, marking the transition from the project stage to beginning the manufacturing phase of the airplanes,” said Embraer Commercial Aviation CEO Paulo Cesar Silva. “There is still a long road ahead, until it actually enters service, but we harbor no doubts as to whether we will deliver to the market the most efficient, modern and robust aircraft in this segment, as well as a very comfortable cabin for passengers.”

Embraer makes the pressure bulkhead out of aviation aluminum at one of the high-speed milling centers housed in the Embraer metallic structures plant in. Plans call for the part to go to Brazil to start the first aircraft assembly.

Embraer chose Évora to install the Embraer Composites and Embraer Metallics plants in 2008, and inaugurated them in September 2012. The final assembly of the E2 jets and the delivery process to customers will take place at Embraer’s headquarters in São José dos Campos, Brazil, in the same facilities now used to produce the current generation of E-Jets.

The Brazilian airframer plans to produce and pre-assemble large parts of the E2 new wings at Evora. In the long term, Embraer intends to produce 200 to 250 shipsets per year in the Evora metallics center of excellence. In a second building just beside it, the company produces composite parts for the Legacy 450/500 business jet family and for the KC-390 military transport aircraft, which it rolled out October 22.

“The Evora plant is now our main factory dedicated to commercial airplanes outside of Brazil,” said Silva. The 740,000-square-foot facility houses modern machining tools such as a 60-foot-long Makino A20H. Roughly half of the €177 million investment in the Evora plant came from the EU. Plans call for the Evora plant to employ some 600 people, more than double its current headcount.

Holding firm orders for 210 E2s and 220 letters of intent and options, Embraer plans to deliver the first E190E2 in 2018. All three versions of the second-generation E-Jets—the E190-E2, the E195-E2 and the E175-E2—will use new wings, a full fly-by-wire system and new “geared turbofan” engines supplied by Pratt & Whitney. Embraer expects the changes to result in a 16 percent reduction in fuel burn for the E175-E2 and E190-E2 compared with their contemporary E-Jet counterparts, and a 23 percent improvement for the E195-E2 versus the E195.5.

“The operational seat mile cost of our E195-E2 will be roughly the same as the Airbus A320neo,” claimed Silva. Confident in maintaining its leadership position in the regional market segment, Embraer has captured a little more than 50 percent share of the 70- to 130-seat segment in terms of net orders, and 62 percent of all deliveries.

Additional reporting by Guillaume Lecompte-Benoit