Embraer learned its trade building American Piper planes under Brazilian names
Before Embraer became the world's third-largest maker of civil aircraft, it spent years assembling someone else's. From 1974, Piper shipped kits from the United States for Embraer to put together and sell as Brazilian models such as the Seneca and the Carioca. By 1978 most parts were made locally, and nearly 2,500 licence-built Pipers rolled out by 2000.
Embraer was a state project. Founded on 19 August 1969 under Brazil's military government, with Ozires Silva as its appointed first president, it was meant to become a national champion in aerospace technology. Its headquarters went to São José dos Campos because the city had hosted, since 1950, the country's first university institute devoted to aeronautics. Government contracts kept it going, and until 1975 it sold only at home.
The Piper deal made sense because Brazil was one of the world's biggest importers of small single- and twin-engine planes. Alongside that work Embraer built military trainers and its own twin-turboprop airliner, the Bandeirante, first flown in 1968, followed by the Brasilia in 1985, aimed at export customers. That family launched a long line of small regional airliners.
Near bankruptcy, the company was privatised on 7 December 1994, with the government keeping a golden share that grants a veto. The new owners pivoted toward civilian jets: regional airliners of 70 to 110 seats and a range of business jets. The Phenom 100 was first imagined as an air taxi, and its larger sibling, the Phenom 300, had been the best seller in its class for 14 years running as of 2026. By May 2024 its deliveries had passed 9,000 planes, of which 1,800 were E-Jets.
A bigger merger almost happened. In July 2018 Boeing agreed to take 80 percent of Embraer's airliner business, a response to Airbus buying into Bombardier's CSeries. Boeing walked away in April 2020, hit hard by the pandemic and the 737 MAX groundings, leaving Embraer independent.
Source: Embraer
