“The tech makes you a better pilot,” says Brad McKeage, vice president of flight operations for Embraer Executive Aircraft. We were halfway through an initial briefing on the Praetor 500—my full-scale orientation to the midsize business jet—and McKeage’s statement caused me to pause my notetaking and consider the principle. Embraer has had decades to develop its proprietary fly-by-wire flight control systems (FBW FCS), the technology to which he was referring. The company launched its initial FBW FCS with the AMX International attack aircraft in 1984, saw it through two generations of regional jets—the E-Jet and the E2—and in 2015, iterated it again for the C-390 Millennium military transport.
In flight, I’ll witness its evolution and intelligence working behind the scenes—but it operates just under the pilot’s ability to sense it, as it diligently keeps the demons at bay. While most new turbine aircraft offer sophisticated layers of overspeed and underspeed protection, FBW FCS operates differently—rather than just jumping in to save you, it’s in the background making minute adjustments, trimming to match the current profile. Even if that profile involves losing an engine.
