Embraer E170
The first E-Jet — Embraer's step up from 50-seaters to a real airliner · First flight 2002 · In service 2004
Embraer launched the E-Jet programme at the Paris Air Show on 14 June 1999, with France's Régional and Switzerland's Crossair as the first customers. The prototype — an E170 — made its maiden flight on 19 February 2002, starting a test campaign that used six prototypes.
Much larger than Embraer's earlier ERJ 145, the E170 has a four-abreast cabin with no middle seat, two GE CF34-8E engines under the wing and seats 66 in two classes or up to 78 in one. Crossair never took its aircraft: it was absorbed into Swiss and the order was cancelled.
LOT Polish Airlines took the first delivery and flew the type's first commercial service, Warsaw to Vienna, on 17 March 2004. Alitalia and US Airways' MidAtlantic followed. About 190 E170s were delivered, as most airlines moved up to the slightly longer E175.
