Inside The Phenom 300E: One Of The Most Popular Private Jets

"If I win the lottery, I won't tell anyone, but there will be signs," as the joke goes, generally accompanied by an image of somebody doing something not-so-extravagant like ordering a second side with their pizza. The fact is, though, that there are certain possessions that immediately define the rich. A glorious mansion or two is probably a given, as is a luxurious sports car (or a fleet of them). Then may come that most ostentatious of big-ticket items: the private jet.

Private jets, of course, are a controversial issue, with worries about emissions and their environmental cost at the fore. Aside from attitudes about who "needs" such a ride, though, there's one thing that almost anyone interested in aviation would agree on: they're some of the most impressive and stylish vehicles around (perhaps depending on the owner's tastes). One especially beloved plane is the Phenom 300E, a suitably sleek and sizable selection for a private jet.

To lift the curtain on this jet, we'll take a closer look at its specs, what it offers, and just how popular the model has proven to be.

The Phenom 300E (E for enhanced) was first created in March 2018. A very exclusive model (only 19 of them were flying around the world by the following January, according to Flying magazine), it replaced the standard Embraer Phenom 300, first certified by Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency in 2009. By May 2021, AIN reported 600 of the aircraft had been delivered worldwide and had achieved an astonishing combined total of 1.2 million miles of flight.

The Phenom 300, in its original guise, packs Pratt & Whitney PW535E1 engines into a streamlined package (the cabin is just over 17 feet long and accommodates up to 10 passengers) that still offers considerable performance. It's capable of Mach 0.80 and cruises at up to 464 ktas (Knots True Airspeed). It's also certified up to 45,000 feet.

Meanwhile, the Enhanced Phenom isn't a great technical leap above its predecessor. The family's technical specs are certainly considerable, but the E model's developments focus on a rather different aspect of the aircraft. One that surely contributes to its popularity as a private jet: Its interior design. It offers something rather special for its occupants, as you'd surely expect.

Practical performance is a vital consideration for anyone in the market for a new aircraft. With a private jet, style and comfort are particular priorities, too. These factors were at the fore of the transition from Phenom 300 to Phenom 300E. It includes installing the High Definition Cabin Management System/In-flight Entertainment system that Lufthansa Technik has dubbed Nice (Network Integrated Cabin Equipment).

What is Nice? Well, it aims to provide travelers with a very nice range of features. Christiane Grude of Lufthansa Technik states that the feature "manages any cabin interaction. You can steer the lighting or audio. We also have a big IFE portion: watching videos, getting great sound aboard the aircraft, and really making the flight enjoyable." Essentially, Nice's goal is to make the Phenom 300E (as well as others equipped with or slated to be equipped with it) something of a "smart aircraft" while also prioritizing entertainment aboard. These entertainment options are designed to be accessible but not intrusive, as evidenced by the control panels that can be extended when in use and will swing away otherwise.

There are Embraer Aero Seating Technologies designed seats with armrests and leg rests that can be adjusted to the passenger's preference, and the walls and surfaces are designed to maximize cabin room and access to in-flight services. Unsurprisingly, such an aircraft certainly isn't cheap.

The 300E, of course, isn't just a luxurious show plane. It's also equipped with advanced systems to boost safety and practicality. ROAAS (Runway Overrun Awareness And Alerting System) technology further emphasizes this. How much will all of this set potential buyers back, then?

A new 300E will cost approximately $12 million. Even where such an outlay is possible, it's vital to remember that maintaining and running a private jet is expensive, too. In the case of this model, Liberty Jet estimates that the price for doing so over the course of around 200 flight hours annually adds up to $802,352.

For those with the resources to own a private jet, though, the Phenom 300 family has been an enormously popular choice since its introduction. In 2023, Embraer boasted on YouTube that the 300 had become the "world's best-selling light jet for the 11th consecutive year." While it will surely need to continue to evolve its systems to retain that lofty record, it's a sleek model that aviation enthusiasts can't help but admire.