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I flew on one of American Airlines' smallest jets - and now I'm a huge fan
The Embraer is an elegant jet aircraft, developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by the Brazilian company to serve regional markets and replace propeller-driven planes. It took to the skies for the first time in 1995.
Source: FlightGlobal Archives
Here's the Embraer 145 I flew from Huntington Tri-State airport to Charlotte. I was flying American Airlines, so the jet was operated by Piedmont Airlines, under the American Eagle banner. Piedmont has 60 Embraer 145s in its fleet.
Some useful information about the jet.
The Embraer 145 is the second-smallest jet American Eagle operates; only the Embraer 140 is smaller.
The 50 seats are arranged in a 1-2 configuration, with a very narrow aisle.
Legroom wasn't bad — but I'm a mere 5-feet-7-inches, so for larger folks, the seats could be snug.
Naturally, because I was flying on a jet plane, I read a novel about a train robbery in Victorian England.
It was a 1975 best seller!
And the late Michael Crichton was rather a young'un in those days.
Tri-State is more of an airfield than an airport, hence the stepladders to board right off the tarmac. Jet service has been absent for some time — I used to ride Bombardier Dash 8 turboprops off this mountain-top redoubt.
The takeoff was swift and private-jet-like.
Airborne! Flight time to Charlotte was only about 30 minutes — we basically climbed and descended. A quick trip, a much less noisy than what I was used to. The 145 rocks a pair of Rolls-Royce turbofan engines that can generate nearly 9,000 pounds of thrust. The jet can fly as high as 37,000 feet.
Hello Charlotte! The second leg of my trip would take me to Newark Liberty, obviously on some larger equipment.
What a nifty jet the Embraer 145 is! I much prefer flying on small single-aisle jets to big narrow-bodies. They get up fast, the boarding and deplaning process is quick, and compared with regional turboprops, they're a much faster way to zip between the major US carriers' hubs. To top it off, I'm glad that jet service has finally returned to my hometown!
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