The Embraer Legacy 600 is a

business jet A business jet, private jet, or bizjet is a jet aircraft designed for transporting small groups of people, typically business executives and high-ranking coworker, associates. Business jets are generally designed for faster air travel and more ...

derivative of the Embraer ERJ family of commercial jet aircraft.

Design and development

The Legacy 600 (market designation adopted after 2005) is based on the ERJ-135 model. It was launched in 2000 at the

Farnborough Airshow The Farnborough International Airshow is a trade exhibition for the aerospace and defence industries, where civilian and military aircraft are demonstrated to potential customers and investors in Farnborough, Hampshire. Since its first show in ...

as the "Legacy 2000". The Legacy carries 13 passengers in three partitioned sections for or 8 passengers for . It features added range via extra

fuel tank A fuel tank (also called a petrol tank or gas tank) is a safe container for Flammability, flammable fluids, often gasoline or diesel fuel. Though any storage tank for fuel may be so called, the term is typically applied to part of an engine sys ...

s in the tail behind the baggage compartment and forward of the wing,

winglets Wingtip devices are intended to improve the efficiency of fixed-wing aircraft by reducing drag. Although there are several types of wing tip devices which function in different manners, their intended effect is always to reduce an aircraft ...

, and an extensive drag reduction program. It is certified to altitude versus for the airline configuration. The Legacy Shuttle can seat 19 to 37 in airline-style seats but without the range. The first flight was made in June 2000, with the prototype of the ERJ-135 (PT-ZJA). This same aircraft was once the prototype of the first ERJ-145. New

and new wing-to-fuselage fairing was added, but no additional fuel tanks were available. The new fuselage fuel tanks were ready for the second prototype (PT-XJO), along with engine and avionics, that flew only in 31 March 2001. It was the second Embraer model to feature winglets, as the first were installed on the EMB-145SA military model. Embraer winglet models differed in shape and structure, due to their optimum design speed. The Legacy 600 competes on the upper end of the small to mid-sized range of business jets and is considered a "Heavy Jet" aircraft. It has nearly the opposite design progression as the rival Canadair Challenger. The Legacy 600 was derived from the established ERJ family of regional jets, while the Canadair Regional Jet was developed by Bombardier from the Challenger business jet. Both lines of aircraft are competitors. Embraer has since launched an extensive lineup of business aircraft, from the entry-level Phenom 100 to the Lineage 1000, a bizliner version of the company's 100-seat E190. With the updated Mark I cockpit of the EMB-145, the Legacy includes a

Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building automation, industrial automa ...

Primus Elite avionics suite

glass cockpit A glass cockpit is an aircraft cockpit that features an array of electronic (digital) flight instrument display device, displays, typically large liquid-crystal display, LCD screens, rather than traditional Analog device, analog dials and gauges ...

. U.S. private aviation companies offering Legacy 600-family business jets for charter include Embraer Executive Jet Services, Clay Lacy Aviation, ExcelAire, Aircraft Services Group and Jet Edge International.

Legacy 650

Announced at the 2009 NBAA show, the Legacy 650 is a longer-range version of the Legacy 600, giving it a range capability of 7,220 km (3,900 nmi; ) non-stop with four passengers, or carry more than the Legacy 600 for a trip. It features also a lowered alley, with increased headroom. It was certified by the FAA in February 2011. Embraer had a joint venture with Aviation Industry Corp. in China assembling Legacy 650a and ERJ-145s from 2004 to 2016. An enhanced version, the 650E, was announced at the 2016 NBAA and scheduled for introduction in 2017. It includes a synthetic vision system and autothrottle as standard, a restyled three-zone interior and comes with a 10-year or 10,000-flight-hour warranty. In August 2020 Embraer announced that it was stopping sales of the Legacy 650.

Accidents and incidents

On 29 September 2006, an ExcelAire Legacy 600 (

aircraft registration An aircraft registration is a code unique to a single aircraft, required by international convention to be marked on the exterior of every civil aircraft. The registration indicates the aircraft's country of registration, and functions much li ...

N600XL) collided with

Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 On 29 September 2006, Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907, a Boeing 737-800 on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Manaus, Brazil, to Brasília and Rio de Janeiro, Mid-air collision, collided mid-air with an Embraer Legacy 600 business ...

, a

Boeing 737-800 The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, or 737 Next Gen, is a twinjet, twin-engine narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Launched in 1993 as the third-generation derivative of the Boeing 737, it ha ...

, while cruising over Mato Grosso, Brazil. The Boeing aircraft crashed, killing all 154 passengers and crew, while the Embraer Legacy 600, despite serious damage to the left horizontal stabilizer and left winglet, was able to continue flying and landed at Cachimbo Air Force Base. On 23 August 2023, a Legacy 600 belonging to the military

Wagner Group The Wagner Group (), officially known as PMC Wagner (, ), is a Russian state-funded private military company (PMC) controlled 2023 Wagner Group plane crash, until 2023 by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Russia's president Vladimir Pu ...

crashed in a field near Kuzhenkino, Tver Oblast, Russia. According to Russian officials, all 10 persons aboard, three crew members and seven passengers, including

Yevgeny Prigozhin Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin (1 June 1961 – 23 August 2023) was a Russian mercenary leader and oligarch. He led the Wagner Group, a private military company, and was a close confidant of Russian president Vladimir Putin until launching a ...

and Dmitry Utkin, were killed. DNA tests subsequently confirmed human remains recovered from the crash site exactly matched the flight's passenger manifest. Prigozhin was additionally identified by a partially severed finger on his left hand. Embraer stated they had not serviced the aircraft since 2019 due to international sanctions against the Wagner Group. US intelligence reported that an intentional explosion caused the aircraft to crash.

Aircraft deliveries

Specifications

References

External links

* * {{Embraer 2000s Brazilian business aircraft Embraer aircraft T-tail aircraft Twinjets Aircraft first flown in 2001 Low-wing aircraft Aircraft with retractable tricycle landing gear