
Embraer's Praetor Heads North
The aircraft, which recently received certification in Brazil, flies to Miami and shows off its distance capabilities.
The recently certified Praetor 600 demonstrated its distance capabilities during its first flight to the U.S. on May 8, arriving in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (FLL) from São Paulo International Airport in Brazil (GMU). The route spanned 3,678 nautical miles but involved a detour around Venezuelan airspace over Colombia and followed Miami’s distinct approach pattern, an Embraer spokesman said. The super-midsize aircraft was still able to land with NBAA reserves and a six-passenger equivalence of payload (1,200 pounds).
The trip followed Brazilian ANAC approval in April, a nod that came six months after Embraer took the wraps off the aircraft during last fall’s National Business Aviation Association convention. A variant of the Embraer Legacy 500, the Praetor 600 has a 4,018-nautical-mile range and a 3,719-nautical-mile range at Mach 0.80 (four passengers, NBAA IFR reserves). This exceeded the original design goals of a 3,900-nautical-mile range and a range of 3,605 nautical miles at Mach 0.80, Embraer said.