Since its introduction in 2009, the Embraer Phenom 300 has proven to be quite popular. Indeed, if the past years are anything to go by, the Phenom 300 is extremely popular, repeatedly being the most sold light business jet of the year!
As of the time of writing, Embraer have produced well over 500 Phenom 300s, in a little over a decade. This makes it not only one of the bestselling light business jets of recent years, but one of the bestselling business jets ever…
Pre-Embraer Phenom 300
In 2002, Embraer released the Legacy 600, a business jet variant of its famed ERJ-135 regional airliner. The Legacy 600 was extremely successful, selling dozens of times, netting Embraer billions in the process.
Trying to build on this success, Embraer began to research the business aviation market a bit more. What Embraer found, was that the market needed a very light business jet, which could transport between five and seven people.
To that end, Embraer announced what they called the Phenom 100 at the 2005 NBAA convention. After receiving several orders for the jet, the Phenom had its maiden flight in July 2007. Embraer would deliver the first Phenom 100 in December the following year.
After delivering the initial orders for the Phenom 100, Embraer began to interview both operators and prospective customers of the jet. Here, they wanted to know how could they could improve the jet, in order for it to sell better.
Many of the prospective customers Embraer interviewed had turned down the jet because they found that it was too small and didn’t carry enough people for their needs.
Other prospective customers had turned down the jet due to the Phenom not making use of the latest technology. Mostly, this was because the jet could’ve had thrust reversers and winglets to make the jet even more fuel efficient, but it didn’t…
Development
Using what they learned, Embraer began to develop a new aircraft using the Phenom 100 as the starting point. This aircraft would eventually become the Embraer Phenom 300.
To start with, Embraer engineers looked at lengthening the Phenom 100’s fuselage, as this was the largest issue (no pun intended). Although several numbers were considered, Embraer engineers chose to lengthen the fuselage by 3.08 meters (10 ft 1 in).
By doing this, the distribution of weight on the Phenom 300 was skewed. To fix this, Embraer engineers altered the tail, making it much taller than it had been on the Phenom 100, thus making the Phenom 300 much taller than the Phenom 100.
Listening to the other reasons, Embraer would also modify the Phenom’s wing, adding winglets which increased fuel-efficiency monumentally.
Embraer also looked at adding thrust reversers, but realized that they need to redesign much of the fuselage to do so (whilst also adding large amounts of unnecessary weight too!)
In order to make the Phenom 300 more appealing, Embraer also acquired newer and more powerful engines. This increased both the range and cruising speed of the Embraer Phenom 300.
Although the Phenom 100’s interior would be used as a starting point, Embraer interior designers would redesign large portions of the Phenom 300’s interior, giving the jet an all-new interior which is rather reminiscent of the Phenom 100’s!
Operational History
Following this, the Embraer Phenom 300 would first fly on April 28 2008, before being entered into service with US-based fractional ownership company, Airshare, in 2009. From here, the Phenom 300 would go on to have a rather interesting service history…
Corporate/Private Jet
Whilst the first operators of the Phenom 300 were fractional ownership companies, they were by no means the only operators of the jet. In fact, most of the Phenom 300’s operators are high-net worth individuals who operate the jet as their own personal jet.
Primarily, these high-net worth individuals are multimillionaire businessmen, who often operate the jet through their companies, usually using the jet as the company jet. Here, it serves in one of two purposes:
The first, and least common is as the short-range jet. In this capacity, the Embraer Phenom 300 serves exclusively short-haul routes (for business jets anyway), which are usually transcontinental routes, whilst a larger jet handles all international routes!
The second, and most common is as the company’s sole jet. Usually, the Phenom is used because the company that operates it only has the need for transcontinental routes, meaning that it’s cheaper to operate a light business jet like the Phenom, than a larger jet.
However, it isn’t just businessmen who operate the jet, so do celebrities. For the most part, these “celebrities” are middling fame, and fly on the Phenom in order to try to media attention (and thus gain more fame) which occasionally works!
In recent years, a number of actual celebrities have hitched rides on these Phenom 300s in order to avoid the paparazzi, which often mob them when they use their own personal jet…
Fractional Ownership/Charter
In recent years, due largely to the Phenom’s success as a corporate/private jet, a number of executive air charter companies have acquired the Phenom 300. Today, most major executive charter airlines have at least a few Phenom 300s.
For the most part, these executive charter airlines offer the Phenom on short-haul routes, usually transcontinental routes, when you need to transport a relatively small group of people.
Although price will vary depending on several factors (such as executive charter airline, time of year and especially the route) you’d be looking at paying roughly $3,000 – $4,000 per hour to charter the Embraer Phenom 300.
However, it hasn’t just been executive charter airlines that have acquired the jet. Indeed, several fractional ownership companies, such as the Phenom’s launch customers, Airshare (North America) and Flairjet (Europe) were fractional ownership companies!
These companies allow high-net worth individuals to acquire part ownership of a Phenom 300, which entitles them to so many flight hours per month/quarter/year.
Naturally the cost of this will vary depending on the percentage (eg. a 1/3 share will be more expensive than a 1/8 share and so on) but a 1/8 share costs roughly $1 million as of the time of writing…
Beyond just hourly rates, fractional ownership companies also charge a monthly fee for their service. Although it will depend on the fractional ownership company, your monthly fee will likely be in the region of $7,000 to $8,000 per month.
Medevac
In August 2020, Embraer announced a partnership between themselves, engineering consultancy firms, umlaut, and air medical installation company, Aerolite, to produce a medevac variant of the Embraer Phenom 300.
Unlike the other corporate/private jet-configured Embraer Phenom 300s, the interior of the medevac-configured Phenom 300s (officially known as the 2020 Phenom 300MED) is designed to be a flying hospital.
In this capacity, an ill patient will fly on the medevac Phenom 300 with a team of medical professionals, who will keep them alive during the flight.
Upon landing, however, they’ll be met by an ambulance who will transport the patient to a nearby hospital to receive proper medical attention.
Instead of several seats and high-end furnishings, the medevac Phenom 300s can have either one or two stretchers, depending on what is going to be needed in the flight.
Depending on the configuration, these Phenom 300s can also essentially be flying hospitals, with only minor modifications needing to be made to add things like an operating table into the jet.
According to Embraer, these aircraft can be both factory-built, start to finish, or can be previously built Phenom 300s that go back to the fact in order to be retrofitted with Aerolite systems.
Despite being relatively new, there are already a few orders for medevac-configured Embraer Phenom 300s. However, none have entered service as of yet, with their entry into service being expected to happen in the next few years…
Features
When compared to its competitors, the Phenom 300 is a much larger aircraft, even if it’s still quite small. Not only is the Phenom wider and taller than the average jet in its class, but it’s also longer too.
Thanks to its larger size, the Phenom is able to carry more passengers than the average jet in its class, all whilst being far lighter (due to the jet being made out of 18% composite materials which are both lighter and stronger than their non-composite counterparts).
In terms of speed, the Phenom is also much faster than the average jet in its class, being able to travel roughly 3% faster.
This is also thanks to the Embraer Phenom 300’s large amount of composites, which makes the jet lighter and thus able to go faster with the same engines.
Beyond just being faster than its competitors, the Phenom 300 also has a longer range than its competitors, again thanks to the large amount of composites found on the Phenom 300, which increase the jet’s fuel-efficiency considerably!
In terms of baggage space, the Phenom 300 has by far the largest in its class. The Phenom’s baggage space is almost double that of the average light jet, being more like the baggage compartment of mid-size or super mid-size jet, rather than a light jet…
Much like the Phenom 100, the Phenom is similarly one of the quietest jets on the market, only being slightly louder (to a point where it isn’t even noticeable!) than the famously quiet Pilatus PC-12.
Price
Currently, assuming you had the money, you could purchase a brand new Phenom 300 straight from Embraer for roughly $8.995 million, making the Phenom 300 one of the cheapest business jets currently on the market!
With that being said, the jet has been on the market for well over a decade now. As such, there were several Phenom 300s currently on the secondary market.
At the “cheaper” end of the spectrum, you can pick up an older (2009-2013) Phenom 300 for between $4.8 and $5 million, depending on the age, total time (on both the fuselage and engines) and number of landings.
On the more expensive end of the spectrum, you can pick up a newer (2014-present) Phenom 300 for as little as $5.5 million. However, these prices could easily increase to as much as $7 million depending on the age of the jet.
In terms of cost to operate, the Phenom 300 is similarly quite cheap to operate. Assuming you were to fly the jet for 400 hours per year, it would cost roughly $2,300 per hour to operate!
Although prices will differ based on a number factors, such as executive charter airline, route and time of year, you’d be looking at paying anywhere from $3,000 to $4,000 per hour to charter the Phenom 300.
Variants
Since the introduction of the Embraer Phenom 300 in 2009, it has proven to be extremely successful. As such, Embraer has developed several variants of the jet…
Phenom 300
In 2009, Embraer released a much larger aircraft based on its successful Phenom 100 design. This aircraft, designated as the Embraer Phenom 300, is the most basic variant of the jet, with all subsequent variants being designed from it.
Primarily, this jet was longer than the Embraer Phenom 100, which allowed it to carry a total between six and ten people. The Phenom 300 also had more powerful engines and winglets.
Phenom 300E
By 2018, the standard Phenom 300 had become antiquated. The introduction of several new light business jets, as well as updated variants of pre-existing light business jets had begun to steal sales away from the Phenom 300.
As such, Embraer embarked on a major update of the Phenom 300, designating this upgraded variant the Phenom 300E (with the “E” standing for “enhanced”).
Embraer engineers completely redesigned the Phenom’s interior, gave it brand avionics in the cockpit and made several major upgrades to the Phenom’s engines.
2020 Phenom 300E
In order to stay ahead of the market, Embraer announced an updated variant of the Embraer Phenom 300E in 2020. Due to the year it was announced in, this variant is designated as the 2020 Phenom 300E.
Primarily, these upgrades had to do with the engines. Here, the jet has significantly upgraded engines, which are much more fuel-efficient, which significantly increases both the cruising speed and range of the jet.
Embraer also added a brand new interior option, known as the Bossa Nova (named after the famed Brazilian samba), which has won the jet quite a few awards over the last year or so.
2020 Phenom 300MED
Technically speaking, the 2020 Phenom 300MED isn’t a factor-built variant of the Phenom 300, but rather a retrofit. However, it is technically a “variant” of the Phenom…
Within a few of announcing the 2020 Phenom 300E, Embraer struck a deal with Aerolite, which sees older Phenom 300s and Phenom 300Es be retrofitted with all the same systems as a 2020 Phenom 300E.
Inside of a luxury interior, however, these 2020 Phenom 300MEDs are given a medevac interior, including much of the same equipment you’d find in a regular ambulance, which allows lifesaving procedures to be carried out mid-flight.
Specifications
| Specifications | Embraer 2020 Phenom 300E |
|---|---|
| Length | 15.9 m (52 ft 2 in) |
| Wingspan | 16.2 m (53 ft 2 in) |
| Height | 5 m (16 ft 5 in) |
| Crew | 1 – 2 |
| Passengers | 6 – 10 |
| Cruise Speed | 834 km/h (518 mph, 450 kn) |
| Range | 3,723 km (2,313 mi, 2,010 nmi) |
| Service Ceiling | 13,716 m (45,000 ft) |
| MTOW | 8,150 kg (17,968 lb) |
How Safe is The Embraer Phenom 300?
When we look at the safest and most dangerous aircraft currently in our skies, we tend to focus solely on commercial airliners like the A320 and 747. Private jets such as the Embraer Phenom 300, on the other hand, are almost always forgotten…
And this for good reason. After all, the sad fact of the matter is that of the nearly eight billion people in the world, only a tiny fraction of them will ever step foot on a commercial airliner, let alone a private jet!
Yet, for those looking to fly on the Embraer Phenom 300, you probably still want to know how safe/dangerous the jet truly is…
Luckily, the Phenom 300 is one of the safest private jets currently on the market. To date, Embraer has produced well over 500 Phenom 300s, with only five of them ever being involved in an aviation-related incident of any kind.
Of these five incidents, three were hull-losses, which only resulted in four fatalities, all of which came from a single incident.
This incident happened in December 2015, when a chartered Embraer Phenom 300 (carrying relatives of Osama bin Laden!) crashed into a British Car Auctions (BCA) building in Hampshire, in the UK.
Here, ATC errors caused undue mental on the pilot, resulting in him mistaking the brightly light BCA building for the runway at Blackbushe Airport (which it was next to).
Thankfully the building was empty, with the crash only resulting in the deaths of the three passengers and the pilot. Due to this, blame was placed on the ATC controllers rather than the pilot.
Looking at the causes of the other four accidents, these too were all due to things that no one could’ve predicted, mainly the weather, rather than anything to do with the jet in particular.
What’s it Like to Fly on The Embraer Phenom 300?
Over the course of writing this article, I had the good fortune to fly on the Phenom 300 several times. And I have to confess something: I understand why it’s the bestselling light business jet of recent years!
For starters, the Phenom is designated as a light business jet. Yet, when you walk into the Phenom’s cabin, it’s set out in such a way that it looks far larger than it really is, looking more like mid-size or super mid-size jet than a light jet…
Perhaps my favorite feature of the jet is how customizable it is. Whilst other jets can be customized as well, the Phenom 300 takes it to the next level. Of the fifteen Phenom 300s I flew on, not a single one was anything like any of the others!
One of the other things I noticed about the jet was how future proof it is The jet has things like phone holders, which may become outdated within a few years, as such they can be easily hidden to avoid the jet looking outdated, even if it’s still quite new.
From a pilot’s point-of-view, the Phenom is a mix of old and new. For example, the Embraer Phenom 300 has an all-glass cockpit, which allows it to be flown by one or two pilots.
But it also has a traditional yoke control (which many pilots still prefer), rather than a side stick which is more common on private jets like the Phenom.
With that all being said, I did find that the Phenom’s internal baggage compartment was quite small, only able to carry a few bags. However, Embraer makes up for this by having a huge external baggage compartment, which is plenty big enough!
What do you think of the Embraer Phenom 300? Have you ever flown on it? Tell me in the comments!
Featured image courtesy of Victor via Flickr.