
Embraer Delivers First Florida-assembled Legacy 500
Besides today’s Legacy 500 handover, the Florida facility has assembled and delivered two Legacy 450s and more than 250 Phenoms.
Embraer Executive Jets recently delivered the first midsize Legacy 500 that was assembled at its recently expanded Melbourne, Florida, plant. The facility assembles all Phenoms and some Legacy 450/500s, with the remainder of the midsize jets produced at Embraer’s headquarters in São José dos Campos, Brazil.
The Florida assembly expansion was completed in May of last year, adding Legacy 450/500 production to the existing Phenom 100/300 line. It more than doubled the size of the facility, to 149,000 square feet (124,600 sq m), allowing the Legacy 450/500 and Phenom 100/300 lines to be side-by-side under one roof. The first Legacy 450 started rolling down the line on May 16, 2016.
An adjoining 31,000-square-foot (25,920-sq-m) completion center/flight-prep building—which, unlike the previous flight-prep area, has a fire-suppression system to accommodate fueled aircraft—has been in operation since last June. A separate two-bay paint facility, which has provisions for a robotic painter, and two-bay delivery center for the Legacy midsize jets was completed late last year. The campus also houses a customer center complete with an interior-design center and Phenom delivery bays, as well as a separate engineering complex.