Coming up with a new airplane is a daunting task – but Embraer announced four new designs this week. Ranging from nine to fifty passengers, Embraer’s Energia family are all electric or clean fuel redefinitions of regional air travel. Luis Carlos Alfonso, Senior VP of Engineering, Technology Development and Corporate Strategy presented them in front of a socially-distanced crowd in Brazil. The presentation, which sent virtual representations of the four craft flying out into the crowd, took place to coincide with COP26 (the Congress of Parties) being held in Glasgow, Scotland. Its choices of pure electric, hybrid-electric, hydrogen-electric, and in its 50-passenger model, hydrogen or SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel) driving turbine engines are all moving toward a “net-zero” goal. Two for Nine The two nine-passenger airplanes vary considerably. One is high-wing, with a pair of vertical tail-mounted motors driving contra-rotating propellers in full-electric mode. The other is a low-wing type, with twin electric motors on the rear flanks of the …