Since its introduction in 2008, the Embraer Phenom 100 has proven to be quite versatile. Not only is it used by private and corporate flyers, but also the military and many more operators…
As of the time of writing, Embraer has produced almost 400 Phenom 100s (whilst having orders for many more!) since 2008, making it one of the fastest-selling very light jets of recent decades!
Development
In 2002, Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, Embraer, released the Legacy 600, a business jet version of their famed ERJ-135 regional airliner. Within only a few years, the Legacy 600 had become quite successful, with Embraer having well over 100 orders for the jet.
Seeing the success of the Legacy 600, as well as the increasing demand for light business jets, Embraer began to toy with the idea of designing an all-new, light jet for the private jet market.
By 2005, Embraer’s board of directors had decided to pursue the idea seriously, with the company announcing development of a new jet that they called the Embraer Phenom 100 at the 2005 NBAA convention, displaying a full-sized mockup of the jet at the convention.
To make the jet more fuel-efficient, Embraer announced that 20% of the Phenom 100 would be made from composites which are not only lighter than their non-composite counterparts, but stronger too.
For the fuselage’s design, Embraer was heavily influenced by the oval fuselage designs of the original business jets, such as the North American Sabreliner, BAe 125 and Lockheed JetStar, which all proved to be quite successful jets in their own rights!
As a light business jet, the Phenom 100 had to be quite small. Due to this, Embraer engineers were forced to add the engines to the rear of the fuselage, just as they’d done on the ERJ-135/Legacy 600 (as well as on pretty much every business jet ever made!)
By mid-2007, Embraer not only had a design that worked, but also a working prototype which the company would unveil over the coming months.
Operational History
Following this, the Embraer Phenom 100 would first fly on July 26 2007, before entering service in December 2008. From here, the Phenom 100 would go on to have a rather interesting operational history…
Private/Corporate Jet
For the most part, since entering service in December 2008, the Phenom 100 has served as the personal jet to the 1%, often serving as a traditional-style private jet or a corporate jet, usually the latter.
Here, the Phenom serves in one of two purposes. The first, and most common, is as the company’s main (and only) jet, usually used to transport the company’s C-Suite executives cross-country (in the Americas) or transcontinental (outside of the Americas).
The second, and least common, is as the company’s short-haul jet. Here, it is used instead of a turboprop like the Pilatus PC-12, to transport a company’s C-Suite executives over short distances, whilst a longer range business jet performs all medium and long-haul flights.
In recent years, the Phenom 100 has also become a favorite of semi-high-profile celebrities. This is mostly due to the Phenom 100’s opulence and comfort, yet affordable economics.
Whilst mostly used by semi-high-profile celebrities, the Phenom 100 is occasionally used by high-profile celebrities too. Whilst by no means the only high-profile celebrity, by far the most famous is Brazilian soccer player, Neymar Jr., who operates the jet on short-haul routes.
Due to the Embraer Phenom 100’s success as a corporate/private jet, the jet has also become quite popular with both executive charter airlines as well as fractional ownership companies.
Airlines
Within only a few years of entering service as a corporate/private jet, many began to realize that, despite being a small private jet, the aircraft’s handling is quite simple to get your head around, and is quite similar to many commercial airliners currently in use today.
Due to this, a number of flight schools owned by major airlines have begun to purchase the Phenom 100 as a jet trainers.
Here, trainee pilots start off on your standard piston-powered Cessnas, before progressing onto twin-engine turboprops. Following this, the trainees fly the Phenom 100 to familiarize themselves with how a multi-engine jet handles.
From here, many airlines will allocate each trainee with a particular aircraft they’ll learn to fly on (usually based on how they score on all of tests). Following this, the trainees will often familiarize themselves with their new aircraft on the aircraft simulator.
Many airlines (and regulatory bodies) also require that, whilst performing this aspect of training, the trainees need to get a certain amount of flying hours outside of the flight simulator. These flights are often done using the flights school’s Phenom 100s.
As of the time of writing, by far the two most famous airline flight schools that operate the Phenom 100 are UAE-based airlines Emirates and Etihad, who both operate the jet in their flight schools dotted throughout the UAE…
Military
However, it isn’t just airlines that have seen the Phenom 100 become a trainer. So have the military. In 2018, the RAF retired their Beechcraft King Air 200 multi-engine trainers which they’d used since 2004.
Looking to replace them, the RAF awarded KBR-Elbit Systems a contract to procure and maintain five Phenom 100s, which would be based at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire (just like the King Air 200s) scheduled to be in service until 2033.
In RAF service, these Embraer Phenom 100s are designated as the Embraer Phenom T1s (with “T1” standing for “trainer”). The jets themselves are used to train multi-engine crews for both the RAF and the Royal Navy.
Here, the Phenom T1s are piloted by two people: the instructor and the trainee. The flights generally differ based on how far into their training the trainees are.
If they’re relatively new to the Phenom T1, the instructor will often do both the takeoffs and the landings, whilst allowing the trainee to become familiar with the handling of the jet.
If relatively far into their training, the trainee will do pretty much all the flying, with the instructor only intervening if the trainee makes a serious mistake.
Most of the crews currently being trained on the Phenom T1 will go on to pilot aircraft such as the Airbus Voyager (A330 MRTT), A400M Atlas, P-8 Poseidons, C-17 Globemaster III and E-7 Wedgetails (737 AEW&C).
VIP Transport
Although the RAF made international news when they acquired the Phenom T1/100 trainer, most of the type’s military operators don’t actually use it as a multi-engine trainer. Instead, they use it just like it was supposed to be: a VIP transport jet.
As of the time of writing, only two nations, Brazil and Pakistan, currently use the Embraer Phenom 100 as a VIP transport jet. Of these two nations, Pakistan is by far the largest operator of the jet, operating four Phenom 100s, compared to Brazil’s two.
For Pakistan, these four Phenom 100s are operated by the Pakistan Air Force to transport Pakistan’s high-ranking military and political leaders on short journey’s where the Pakistan Air Force’s two Gulfstream GIV-SPs aren’t available or when it isn’t economically viable to fly them.
Generally speaking, Pakistan’s Phenom 100s are only used to transport military and political leaders domestically, mostly owing to the Phenom’s relatively short range and lack of prestige (at least compared to the Gulfstream!)
Brazil also operates two Phenom 100s, designed for VIP transport. Designated as U-100s by the Brazilian Air Force, these Phenom 100s were delivered to the Brazilian Air Force in October 2019.
Here, these U-100s are expected to serve dual roles. Primarily, they’ll be used by high-ranking Brazilian military officials (not politicians) for transport to and from battlefields and other military bases.
When not performing these roles, the U-100s will act act as medical transport aircraft transporting both organs and trained doctors across the country with pre-existing EMB 111s, EMB-120s and Cessna 208 Caravans physically cannot do.
Features
When compared to its competitors, the Phenom is by far one of the largest in its class, even if it’s still one of the smallest business jets ever built. Not only is it longer than its competitors, it’s also wider and much taller, mostly due to its taller-than-average tail.
Despite being larger than its competition, the Phenom 100 is much lighter (owing to it being made from 20% composites). Due to this, the Phenom requires a much shorter runway both to takeoff and land on, than its competitors do.
In part due to the Phenom being lighter, the jet has a far faster cruising speed than its competitors. However, the Phenom sacrifices range for faster cruising speeds.
Also thanks to how light the jet is, the Embraer Phenom 100 is much more fuel efficient, burning 106 gallons of fuel per hour (compared to the class average of 120 gallons per hour!)
Whilst the Phenom is quite small, the aircraft has a large baggage capacity for its class, at 60 cubic feet (1.7 cubic meters) which is extremely generous for someone planning to fly on the Phenom 100’s typical short-haul routes.
That being said, besides the Eclipse 500, the Embraer Phenom 100 is by far one of, if not the, quietest business jets in the world, perhaps even more so than the famously quiet Pilatus PC-24!
Price
Today, assuming you had the money, you could buy a brand new Phenom 100 straight from Embraer themselves for around $4.15 million a piece, making the Phenom 100 by far one of the cheapest private jets on the market.
With that being said, the Embraer Phenom 100 has been on the market for well over a decade, meaning that there are several used Phenom 100s on the secondary market, located throughout the world.
Currently, there are twelve Phenom 100s up for sale, varying in price from $1.3 million to $1.85 million. Unlike other jets on the secondary market, the value of these jets isn’t determined by what variant they are, or how old they are, but by how much they’ve been used.
If you’re looking for a “cheaper” Embraer Phenom 100, such as the one with the asking price of $1.3 million, it’s probably going to be one with more than 5,000 hours on the airframe (and roughly 3,500 landings) which means it’s closer to needing serious maintenance work done.
Assuming you don’t want to pay this, you could buy a more “expensive” Embraer Phenom 100, such as the one up for $1.85 million. For these jets, you’d be looking at an aircraft with roughly 2,500 hours on the airframe (and about 2,000 landings!)
In terms of cost to operate, the Phenom 100 is similarly quite cheap to operate. Depending on how often you operate the Phenom 100, it could cost as little as $1,250 per hour to as much as $1,750 per hour to operate the jet.
Whilst price will vary based on several different factors, including time of year, executive charter airline and route, most executive charter airlines charge around $2,500 per hour for you to charter a Phenom 100.
Variants
Since the Phenom 100’s introduction in 2008, it has proven to be the most successful light business jets Embraer has ever produced. Due to this, Embraer have produced several variants of the Embraer Phenom 100…
Phenom 100
In mid-2007, Embraer released a very light business jet which it called the Embraer Phenom 100. As the standard variant of the jet, the standard Phenom 100 is considered to be the weakest of all Phenom 100 variants.
This Phenom 100 was equipped with two aft fuselage-mounted Pratt & Whitney Canada PW617F-E engines and Embraer modified Garmin 1000 avionics in the cockpit.
Phenom 100E
A few years later, many more very light business jets had been introduced to the market, many of which were cheaper than and superior to, the Phenom 100 Due to this, Embraer were forced to upgrade parts of the Phenom 100.
In particular, these upgrades focused on the Phenom’s wings, in particular the wing’s spoilers. Here, the pre-existing spoilers were removed, being replaced with multifunction ones.
The addition of multifunction spoilers allows for more drag to be created when activated, thus allowing the Phenom to slow down much quicker. This allows the jet to land of shorter runways than pretty much every other business jet ever built!
Phenom 100EV
A few years after introducing the Embraer Phenom 100E, extensive upgrades to other very light jets began to make the Phenom 100E outdated. Due to this, Embraer had to begin their own extensive upgrades of the Phenom 100E too…
Here, Embraer focuses heavily on making the Phenom 100 lighter, whilst using more powerful engines. This increased both the cruising speeds and range of the Phenom 100, whilst also reducing takeoff and landing distances.
Listening to pilot’s input, Embraer would also update the Phenom’s avionics. Here, Embraer engineers took the updated Garmin G300 avionics and modified them to fit inside the Phenom’s cockpit.
U-100
In the mid-2010’s, the Brazilian Air Force was looking for a small, multipurpose jet aircraft that it could use alongside its turboprop fleet. After much debate, the Brazilian Air Force acquired two Embraer Phenom 100EVs.
As military aircraft, these Phenom 100EVs have been designated as Embraer U-100s, with there being very little difference between the U-100 and a corporate/private jet-configured Phenom 100EV.
The only real difference is the baggage compartment, which has been altered so that it is cool so that when it’s transporting cool boxes containing human organs, the organs themselves don’t become warm (and start to decompose).
Specifications
| Specifications | Embraer Phenom 100EV |
|---|---|
| Length | 12.82 m (42 ft 1 in) |
| Wingspan | 12.3 m (40 ft 4 in) |
| Height | 4.35 m (14 ft 3 in) |
| Crew | 1 – 2 |
| Passengers | 5 – 7 |
| Cruise Speed | 750 km/h (470 mph, 400 kn) |
| Range | 2,182 km (1,356 mi, 1,178 nmi) |
| Service Ceiling | 12,500 m (41,000 ft) |
| MTOW | 4,800 kg (10,582 lb) |
How Safe is The Embraer Phenom 100?
Today, when we look at the safest and most dangerous aircraft, you’ll find that pretty much everyone solely focuses on commercial aircraft like the A320 and 747. Private jets on the other hand, are almost always left off this list…
And this is for good reason. After all, the sad reality is that only a small percentage of the world’s population will ever fly on a private jet, such as the Phenom 100, during their lifetime.
However, if you plan to fly on the Phenom 100, you probably want to know how safe/dangerous the aircraft is for you to fly on.
Since 2008, Embraer have produced almost 400 Phenom 100s (as of the time of writing). In the same time, there have been 11 aviation-related incidents involving the Phenom 100, only one of which has resulted in fatalities…
In December 2014, a corporate-operated Embraer Phenom 100 stalled just short of the runway, crashing into three houses, killing all three on board the Phenom, as well as the three people in one of the houses.
This crash was fairly high-profile and garnered quite a bit of media attention for it. According to the accident report, this was mostly caused by pilot error, as the pilot had disengaged the deicing system even though it was snowing and incredibly icy!
Looking at the other 10 accidents, those that were non-fatal, most of these were also caused by pilot error, mostly due to the pilots being inexperience with the jet due to only being certified to fly it only a few months before the crash.
Thankfully, most current Phenom 100 pilots have been certified on the jet for quite some time, meaning that these trivial mistakes (in theory) shouldn’t happen again.
What’s it Like to Fly on The Embraer Phenom 100?
Over the course of writing this article, I have had the good fortune of flying on the Embraer Phenom 100 several times. Before this, the closest I’d ever gotten to a Phenom 100 was when I sat in an RAF-owned one at RIAT 2019!
As a relatively new jet, I’d heard a lot about it. In particular, I’d heard that it was the “Perfect combination of speed and style, all whilst costing only a couple of dollars per mile!” as one person put it to me…
Flying on the jet, I found that this was mostly true.
Despite only being a few miles per hour faster than other jets in its class, the Phenom 100 felt noticeably faster than other light jets I’ve flown on, including the SF50, Eclipse 500 and Cessna Citation CJ1/M2!
I also found elements of the Legacy 600 in the Phenom 100. In particular, the Embraer Phenom 100’s cabin is the spitting image of the Legacy 600’s, with the only real difference being a slight modification, and the Phenom’s cabin obviously being smaller.
From a pilot’s point of view, I also found that the cockpit was incredibly modern. The Phenom 100 itself was one of the first business jets to have always had an all-glass cockpit, regardless of variant, which makes it easier for pilots to fly the Phenom!
With all that being said, I did find that the Phenom’s toilet, located at the rear of the cabin, whilst enclosed (unlike other very light jets), was a much tighter fit, more akin to a toilet onboard a commercial airliner than a private jet.
But then again, you aren’t sharing it with hundreds of other people!
What do you think of the Embraer Phenom 100? Have you ever flown on it? Tell me in the comments!
Featured image courtesy of Victor via Flickr.