Appears at long last, an aircraft seemingly designed for those that pay to fly the oh so uncomfortable and unfriendly skies. One might be justified in thinking that the powers that be in engineering at Boeing or Airbus might slip something like this past their bean counters. Reading the business papers you would think they are the only games in town so it is a real revelation upon rooting around in the seat back pocket for the safety pamphlet to discover this wonderful aircraft is an Embraer 170…Designed and constructed in Sao Jose Dos Campos, Brazil of all places.
I spend a great deal of time on aircraft, perhaps as many as a couple hundred flights during some years, almost all of them being cross continent or intercontinental. It is very much a case of put up and shut up as I hunker down in a semi stupor for endless hours in coach on a crumb covered seat, breathing stale air and peering out of a miniscule and most likely dirty window. The carpet underfoot is invariably thread bare, the seat cushions are dead, the head rests look fit only for head lice and I make every effort to suppress the pavlovian instinct for a soda and pretzels from some surly employee. All the while with another over-charged and usualy over weight passenger half in my lap and/or engaged in quietly, viciously, elbow wrestling for arm rest space. Such drama within the dull and claustrophobic confines of our geriatric aircraft fleets!
So how wonderful to be aboard a clean, bright and airy aircraft with superb seats, positively huge windows, humane dimensions evident at elbow, knee and head and a refreshing interior of fixtures and fittings guarranteed to make the time spent within, quite pleasurable. All this mind you is on a relatively small aircraft, a “regional jet” as they are termed. This is not the almost unbearable cigar tube confines of Bombardier’s offering. This one seats 70, looks like a ”full size” aircraft in most aspects and can fly substantive routs as demonstrated by this morning’s flight as it leaves Miami for Chicago. Kudos goes to Embraer for what I view as a wonderful machine and in this case to United Airlines for operating it. (hopefully many of them) I arrive Chicago having enjoyed the flight a great deal, the flight characteristics of the short wing is “pleasantly energetic”. The cabin noise is unobtrusive and oh those huge windows… watching the beauty of the rising sun lighting up this slice of the US (and thereby the airiness of the cabin) is tantamount to watching ‘Planet Earth’ as portrayed on a huge flat panel HD TV. Simply put, for the frequent flier, much jaded and all too frequently abused, this aircraft alone can actually recall the pleasure and peace that used to be felt while flying before the term “cattle class” became a part of our lexicon. Too bad the completion of the trip to Portland was once again within the predictably crumby and miserably stale confines of the ubiquitous 757. I can only hope that pilots and accountants like the Embraer 170 and its siblings as much as myself. It is simply that good (for the pasenger) and surely deserves to be the top dog in the arena of regional jets. www.embraercommercialjets.com
Hello Bud-
I have not flown on one of the 170’s yet. I’ll put a request in on my next Net Jets flight out of Notht Bend.
All is well here and dreaming of Argentina. Do you know anything about Argentina?
I’ll query you later.
Salud, Carlos
Argentina? Charlie, what does that have to do with this? Here goes anyway. Women & Tango. Familial politics with a power gal by the name of Kirchner doing a re run of Evita. A country accidentaly having stumbled on great economic times kidding themselves it was by design? Maggie Thatcher got up to some mischief down there did she not involving at least two notable tragic events, the Sheffield & the General Belgramo. I think that is the extent of knowledge and you can rest assured it is flavored by all the canned corned beef I ate as a kid…that hailed from Argentina.