40 Years of a Dream

Abstract

On August 19 th , 2009, EMBRAER celebrated its first 40 years of existence. The company was created by a Federal Law, starting its operations joining the Government capital with the ones from private sectors, after several attempts to find entrepreneurs interested in face the challenges to produce aircraft in Brazil. This solution solved a long lasting problem to face a new start for the creation of a Brazilian aviation industry. The very first idea was to design a modest-sized prototype transport plane which should be stout and appropriated to operate on no-paved and relatively short runways, as the ones which predominated in smaller towns.In the middle of the 1960's the air transport world market behavior showed that, with the advent of jets -every time larger and faster -, the companies would be forced to give up working in communities which did not have the airport infrastructure or generate sufficient traffic to occupy at least 60 per cent of the seats in a aircraft. By that time, a small team of aeronautical engineers, graduated by the Technological Institute of Aeronautics, observed that prevailing behavior identified a real market niche, barely perceived by the large worldwide commercial airplane producers, such as BOEING, CONVAIR, DOUGLAS, LOCKHEED, AEROSPATIALE and others.In this way, in these forty years, EMBRAER achieved a remarkable success. Its products are operating in more than 80 countries and it is considered as one of the largest manufacturer of commercial aircraft, mainly producing jets for regional transports among other products.Over the years, due to its strategy, the company could grow and always innovating conquered important standings in the international market place. Nowadays, EMBRAER shows a large capacity of production, showing in its production line a variety of types and models of airplanes, having established a good capacity of meeting the most varied options required by interested buyers. In its very competitive market the Brazilian planes generally show characteristics and performance capable to respond to what is expected in most varied regions and countries. Moreover the commercial jets, the current line of products, includes military, executive and specialized planes, and it is astonishing to observe the flexibility and the efficiency with which the specialized teams operate the complexity, sophistication of the modern aircraft, carrying out the most advanced equipments and technologies.Regional air transport system emerged from simple ideas of the past and today shows to be one of the most successful air transport segments. According to IATA -the International Association of Air Transport -the activity of international flights accumulates heavy financial losses. The operation of domestic flights faces difficulties in several regions throughout the world. However, smaller businesses, specialized in meeting the needs of micro-regions, with high efficiency and frequency, using some of EMBRAER's and its competitors' aircraft, manage to remain firmly settled. Indeed, many of the...