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Brazil-based
Embraer is best known for its regional jets. But at the National Business Aviation
Association (NBAA) conference in Atlanta, Georgia, the jet maker unveiled two
new business jet concepts - a midlight and a midsized jet - to add to its small,
but growing line of executive aircraft. Embraer
plans to become a major player in the business jet market by 2015. At present,
though, the planes are just at the concept stage, and the company has not decided
whether it will actually launch them, said Embraer president and chief executive
Frederico Fleury Curado. The
new clean-sheet designs would feature a state-of-the-art cockpit and avionics.
They would have common wings, engines and empennages. The midlight aircraft is
actually a smaller version of the midsized. Officials
refused to put a price of the planes, but the head of Embraer''s business aircraft
unit Luis Carlos Affonso said the company was taking orders with refundable deposits
of $70,000 and $90,000, depending on the plane.
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