Declaring its seriousness to expand in the global aerospace market, Embraer on Monday cut the ribbon on its new engineering and technology center in Melbourne, Florida. The center will eventually employ about 200 people, Embraer officials said, and will carry on engineering projects across all three markets Embraer is active in. The center also represents the first time the company has moved primary engineering and development out of its headquarters in Brazil. The 75,000-square-foot facility will perform work for Embraer’s business jet, airline and defense segments.
Embraer already has a manufacturing facility at Melbourne Airport where it assembles and completes the Phenom 100 and 300 bizjets for customers all over the world, except South America. It shopped a location for its new engineering facility all over the world but settled on Melbourne as the best choice, primarily because of a rich skill base created by the nearby Kennedy Space Center and related industries. Furthermore, Melbourne’s Airport offers plenty of green space for future expansion, which Embraer says it’s clearly interesting in doing as it aggressively sells to the global market. The company worked with Space Florida and the Brevard County government to complete the center on a fast track. Construction was started only last fall and with the hiring of about 70 employees, the center is ready to open and will be hiring additional workers.
“We will have research and development, not only products, but also technology for three business areas for Embraer. The initial assignments here will be on executive aircraft interiors,” said Mauro Kern, Embraer’s vice-president for engineering and technology. Why the U.S.? “Embraer is becoming a global company, so we have industrial initiatives in many different places. One of the most important is here in Melbourne. We have assembly facilities and a big center for executive jets. So it was only natural to have this center here. This area was one of the best we could find,” he added. “We have already hired some engineers from NASA. It’s amazing the availability of talent we have here, structural engineers, electronics … it’s just great.”
