Embraer aircraft
95 ° ETA C-3CM aircraft from Galeão base. This is the first modernized Bandeirante, flown on December 14, 2010.
A little over 50 years ago, in October 1968, the Bandeirante prototype was flown in São José dos Campos. The EMB-110 was the first mass-produced twin-engine aircraft constructed in Brazil. The Embraer plant, which today is one of the world leaders in the field of regional communication aircraft, was established specifically for the needs of serial production. Within 20 years, nearly 500 copies of Bandeirante in 20 versions were produced for several dozen military and civilian users from over 30 countries.
Building the foundations for modern military and civil aviation structures began in Brazil in the 40s. On January 20, 1941, the Ministry of Aviation (Ministério da Aeronáutica, MAER) was established, and the existing aviation of the land forces (Aviação Militar) and the navy (Aviação Naval) was merged into the National Air Force (Forças Aéreas Nacionais, FAN), which on May 22 was renamed Brazilian Air Force (Força Aérea Brasileira, FAB). Establishing military cooperation with the United States has resulted, inter alia, in sending a group of FAB officers to the US to learn about the organization and management of the air force, education and the aviation industry. One of them, Tenente-Coronel (Lt. Col. Casimiro Montenegro Filho), even before the end of World War II, proposed creating a modern aviation infrastructure in Brazil that would give impetus to the economic development and industrialization of the country. First, a teaching and research base was to be established, which would then enable the development of the domestic aviation industry.
Final assembly of the first prototype in the X-10 IPD / PAR hangar.
The idea of Lt. Montenegro was approved by the Brazilian government and on January 29, 1946, the Aviation Technology Center (Centro Técnico de Aeronáutica, CTA; now Departamento de Ciência e Tecnologia Aeroespacial, DCTA) was established in Campo de Marte near São Paulo. As part of it, on January 16, 1950, the Institute of Aviation Technology (Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica, ITA) began operating, educating aviation engineers and technicians. The headquarters of ITA is located in São José dos Campos, São Paulo state, on the road from São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro. In 1953, the CTA also moved its headquarters to São José dos Campos. A year later, the CTA established the Research and Development Institute (Instituto de Pesquisas e Desenvolvimento, IPD), whose task was to conduct research and development in the field of aviation technology, test and certify new types of aircraft, approve and supervise the activities of enterprises producing airplanes and aviation equipment and many other. Within a few years, São José dos Campos became the main center of aviation technology in Brazil.
At the beginning of the 60s, MAER began to consider the possibility of undertaking the licensed production of modern passenger and transport aircraft for the needs of domestic civil and military aviation. Several types of aircraft were taken into account: the Dutch Fokker F27 Friendship, the British Hawker Siddeley HS-748 and the Handley Page Dart Herald and the American Convair 580. However, they were all too large, complicated and expensive for Brazilian conditions. Therefore, it was decided to build a smaller and lighter, twin-engine turboprop transport plane with a simple structure, easy to operate and cheap to operate, characterized by a short run-up and roll-out, enabling operation from small unpaved landing sites and a large range, allowing for reaching remote parts of the country.
As the Brazilians did not have much of their own experience in the design and construction of twin-engine aircraft, the help of the French constructor Max Holste, who was in Brazil at the time, was used. In February 1965, Holste was invited to cooperate by the director of IPD, May. Eng. Ozires Silva. The French did not really believe in the ability of the Brazilian industry to build such an aircraft, so he proposed to start the licensed production of the double-engine piston high-wing fixed undercarriage with the MH.350 Broussard Major, which he had constructed. The plane, however, was too small for the needs of the Brazilian air force. Ultimately, Holste agreed to participate in the venture. He helped organize a design team in IPD and participated in the preparation of the preliminary design of the aircraft designated IPD-6504 (design No. 4 from 1965).
On June 12, 1965, the Minister of Aviation Brigadeiro (Maj. Gen.) Eduardo Gomes approved the preliminary design of the IPD-6504 aircraft. On this basis, on June 25, the IPD Department of Aircraft (Departamento de Aeronaves, PAR) began to prepare a detailed technical design. Ozires Silva was appointed the head of the design team, and the entire project was supervised by the director of CTA Coronel (Colonel) Paulo Victor da Silva. The design was made by, among others, Brazilian engineers and technicians working in the 50s on the construction of the Convertiplano vertical take-off and landing plane and the Beija-Flor helicopter. In total, several hundred people participated in the entire project, including over 300 from the IPD / PAR itself. In addition, various FAB facilities and private companies were involved in the design and construction of the IPD-6504, incl. Avitek and Aerotec.
By giving the green light to the development of the IPD-6504, MAER wanted to achieve two main goals: to create a modern utility aircraft with a simple design, suitable for serial production in Brazil, and to equip FAB and civilian carriers with a multi-purpose aircraft well adapted to local conditions (incl. density and technical condition of airports and the volume of passenger and cargo air traffic). After long debates, 8 passengers and 150 kg of luggage were found to be the optimal capacity. This made it possible to determine the dimensions and maximum take-off weight, and then the required power of the power unit and other technical parameters. The result is a sleek, twin-engine, cantilever, low-wing, all-metal, half-shell structure with a retractable three-wheel undercarriage with a front wheel. Simple trapezoidal wings had a double-girder structure. The only element of mechanization of the wings were two-slotted flaps. The propulsion was based on the latest Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-20 turboprop engines available at that time, with a maximum take-off power and durability of 550 shp each, with Hartzell three-blade self-adjusting metal propellers with a diameter of 2,36 m. The crew consisted of two pilots.
IPD-6504 (EMB-100) prototypes
Designing the IPD-6504 aircraft consumed 110 thousand. hours, calculations and endurance and aerodynamic tests 22 thousand. hours, and the construction of the prototype 282 thousand. hours. 12 thousand. technical drawings. The first of the three IPD-6504 prototypes (serial no. 01) was completed in October 1968, three years and four months after MAER had approved the preliminary design. This was a record-breaking short time considering that previously the process of designing and building a prototype of a new aircraft in Brazil took about 5 years. Maj. pil. José Mariotto Ferreira from FAB and ITA graduate, Eng. pil. Michel Cury. Both were sent to the Flight Test Center (Center d'Essais en Vol) in Istres, France for specialized training.
The first engine start-up took place on October 17, 1968. During the test taxiing at the airport in São José dos Campos, there was a minor damage to the undercarriage, but it was quickly repaired. The flight was carried out on October 22nd and lasted 50 minutes. The aircraft wore the colors of the Brazilian Air Force, the military designation YC-95 and the FAB registration number 2130. The date of the flight was not made public, but the event attracted many spectators from the CTA, ITA and bystanders. Public presentation of the new aircraft and the first official flight in the presence of around 15. viewers took place on October 26. Among the invited guests were representatives of civil and military authorities, including the Minister of Aviation Brig. Márcio de Souza e Mello at the helm. On May 15, 1969, the IPD-6504 / YC-95 prototype made the first demonstration flight with passengers over the new capital of the country, Brasilia. On board were: Minister of Aviation Márcio de Souza e Mello, Mayor of Brasilia Wadjô Gomide and several high-ranking FAB officers. The first prototype made its last flight in June 1975, after which it went to the military Museum of Aviation and Astronautics (Museu Aeroespacial, MUSAL) in Campo dos Afonsos, Rio de Janeiro state. In total, the machine spent over 5000 hours in the air.
The second IPD-6504 (serial no. 02), also marked YC-95 (no. FAB 2131), was flown on October 19, 1969. It differed from the first prototype in terms of construction details, e.g. it had four windows on the sides of the fuselage instead of three . On August 18, 1978, the plane ended its service with the FAB, and in October it went to the Aviation Museum (Museu de Aeronáutica) in São Paulo, managed by the Santos Dumont Foundation (Fundação Santos Dumont). In October 2008, on the 40th anniversary of the first IPD-6504 prototype flight, Embraer undertook a renovation to restore its original appearance. In June of the following year, the restored plane was on display at the Museum of Brazilian Aviation and Astronautics (Memorial Aeroespacial Brasileiro) in São José dos Campos.
The third prototype of the IPD-6504 (serial no. 03) was flown on June 29, 1970 with the civil registration of the PP-ZCN. The same changes were made to it as to the second prototype. Unlike the first two machines that were built in the X-10 IPD / PAR hangar, the assembly of the third prototype was already carried out at Embraer. In July of the same year, the plane was purchased by the National Committee of Space Activities (Comissão Nacional de Atividades Espaciais, CNAE; in 3 renamed the National Institute for Space Research [Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, INPE]), where it was registered by PP-FXC and proper name Santos Dumont. Equipped with measuring equipment, the aircraft was used for research under the SERE (Sensoriamento Remoto) project until 1971. In the meantime, in December 1980 his registration was changed to PP-ZDF. The plane is currently on display in the Santos Dumont Park (Parque Santos Dumont) in São José dos Campos.
In addition, a fourth airframe for static and fatigue tests was built, which was completed in 1972. It represented the standard of the EMB-110 serial machines.
On October 26, 2018, in São José dos Campos, the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the IPD-6504 / EMB-100 / YC-95 prototype took place. It was attended by, among others Brazil's Minister of Defense Joaquim Silva e Luna, Commander of the FAB Tenente-Brigadeiro (Lieutenant General) Nivaldo Luiz Rossato, President of the Board and CEO of Embraer Paulo Cezar de Souza e Silva and head of the aircraft design team and first director of Embraer Tenente-Coronel reformando (Lt. Col. retired) Ozires Silva.
