he was in her 90s and nothing if not an optimist.
“This might be my last plane,” she told the interior
design team at Embraer Executive Jets, “and I want to
have fun. I don’t want to do beige.”
What the spirited, Texas-based client wanted to
do was color. Lots of color. So much so, in fact, that
there initially were some raised eyebrows at Em-
braer, which builds planes in Melbourne, Florida.
But once the staff embraced the flamboyance, they had a blast. And so,
apparently, did the buyer. “It meant the world for us to be able to de-
liver what she wanted,” says Frank Chavez, Embraer’s director of inte-
rior design and customer interaction. “The fact that she had fun proved
two things. It proved to us as a company that it’s okay to go outside
the box—that it’s not going to destroy brand value. And it proved that
pleasing the customer, even in a jet segment where we don’t see that
much customization, is always the priority.”
While personal touches are less prevalent with the entry-level Phe-
nom, which is what the color-loving grand dame purchased, the sky’s
the limit with Embraer’s $53 million, Manhattan-themed Lineage 1000
that was presented at this year’s European Business Aviation Con-
vention and Exhibition in Geneva. The design concept includes the
Cloud Club, a luxury lounge with decor inspired by the Chrysler build-
ing (think brass light treatments and a mohair/lambskin sofa) along
with a panoramic city-loft window reminiscent of French designerS
Among custom interiors for the Embraer Lineage 1000 (left)
is the Bali Spa Hopper concept design (above), which overlays
the plane’s windows with a projected Indonesian landscape.
Embraer’s rich Bossa Nova design (below), shown in one of its
Praetor jets, was inspired by the beaches of Brazil.