Embraer Legacy 600/650: specifications and range

The Legacy 600 grew out of the ERJ-135 regional airliner, and the cabin shows it: 12.9 metres of length and three full zones at an entry price from $3.5 million, to my information. Here are the book figures for both versions, what really separates the 650 from the 600, and what a range of 7,200 km means with a full cabin.

Principal specifications

Manufacturer's data and the type catalogue. The exact figures for a particular aircraft come from its flight manual: specification and modifications change the weights, and with them the range.

Full specifications and sourcing are on the model page.

Where the cabin came from

The programme was launched at the Farnborough air show in 2000 under the name Legacy 2000. The prototype flew the same year, and the second prototype took to the air on 31 March 2001. The aircraft received the name Legacy 600 in 2005.

The base was the ERJ-135 regional airliner — hence the fuselage cross-section, the margin in the airframe, and an hourly cost that stays modest for the large class. The airliner origin gives three things that count as money: a wide fleet behind the components, an established service network, and a cabin nearly thirteen metres long at a take-off weight of 22.5 tonnes.

By the end of 2020, 289 aircraft of the family had been delivered. The type worked widely with charter operators and government bodies, Russia and the CIS included.

Range: 6,300 and 7,200 kilometres

The 900 km difference between the versions is the main argument for the 650. It comes from additional fuel tanks and the more powerful AE 3007A2 engines.

The book figure is calculated at the notional payload, full fuel and the standard reserve. In service it comes down.

Payload. Every passenger above the notional figure takes fuel with them. A full cabin of fourteen with baggage costs several hundred kilometres.

Wind. A headwind on east–west routes eats 5 to 15 per cent of the range depending on season and flight level.

The departure aerodrome. A short runway, high temperature or elevation limits the take-off weight, and with it the fuel carried.

A working rule: a route longer than 85 per cent of book range is planned with a technical stop or with a reduced load. For the Legacy 650 that is about 6,100 km without qualifications, for the Legacy 600 about 5,350 km.

In practice the 650 covers Moscow and Western Europe with a wide margin, Moscow and Dubai, Moscow and Delhi. The Legacy 600 flies the same routes with a smaller reserve and is more sensitive to a headwind.

The cabin: three zones and a lowered aisle

A length of 12.9 m divides the cabin into three parts without crowding any of them: a club zone, a middle zone with a table or a divan, and an aft rest zone. For comparison, the Bombardier Challenger 604 has a cabin about 8.7 metres long at nearly the same take-off weight.

Width is 2.10 m and height 1.82 m. Those are figures of their generation: the Challenger 604 gives 2.41 × 1.83 m, the Falcon 900 gives 2.34 × 1.88 m. The Legacy wins back in length what it gives away in cross-section.

On the Legacy 650 the aisle was lowered and cabin height increased. Listings usually pass over this change. In the cabin it registers at once — in the way a person 185 cm tall walks from a seat to the galley.

The baggage compartment is large by the standards of the class. Its exact volume, and whether it can be reached in flight, depend on the layout of the particular aircraft and come from its flight manual.

Engines

Two Rolls-Royce AE 3007s — a family with high accumulated hours across the world fleet, and the same gas generator sits on the regional ERJs. The service network behind it is wide, which on an aircraft of a type out of production weighs more than the book figures.

The Legacy 600 carries AE 3007A1Es of 35.4 kN thrust, the Legacy 650 carries AE 3007A2s of 40.1 kN. The gain is about 13 per cent, and it comes together with a take-off weight increased by 1,800 kg.

The engines are supported on hourly-payment programmes. Programme status is the first thing looked at in the documents when buying: it affects the price and the first-year budget alike. An aircraft without active engine coverage trades at a discount, and joining a programme after the fact costs more than continuous participation.

Ceiling and aerodromes

A ceiling of 12,000 m is the level of a regional airliner, and it sits below aircraft with a purpose-built business airframe: the Challenger 604 reaches 12,497 m, the Falcon 900 reaches 15,500 m.

The practical consequence is simple. At the levels where the main traffic runs, you deviate around weather more often and wait in line to climb more often. On a five- to six-hour route that is tens of minutes of difference, and at five hundred hours a year it becomes a visible figure.

The runway required at maximum take-off weight is not confirmed for the family in my database. It comes from the flight manual of the particular aircraft: until that check, airfields with a limited runway are best kept out of the route network.

Versions: how to tell them apart in a listing

Legacy 2000 — the working name of the programme at launch in 2000, before the rebranding.

Legacy 600 — the base production version, deliveries from 2002, a cabin of 13–14 seats in three zones.

Legacy 650 — the 2009 version: range about 7,200 km, AE 3007A2 engines, take-off weight 24,300 kg, a reworked cabin.

Legacy 650E — the final version of 2017: updated avionics, cabin finish, a ten-year factory warranty.

Legacy Shuttle — a corporate shuttle layout of 19–37 seats for staff transport.

The type is verified from the logbook. The description in a listing confirms nothing here: a Legacy 600 presented as a 650 is an ordinary story on the pre-owned market, and the difference between them is 900 km of range and several million dollars in price.

What to look at on the particular aircraft

• the airframe logbook: hours and cycles as separate lines, and on an aircraft with an airliner past the cycles say more than the hours;
• each engine on its own: time accumulated, what remains to removal, the hourly programme in force and its status;
• the APU: time accumulated and programme coverage;
• calendar checks: which are closed and which one falls due next;
• avionics: the fit and its approvals for the airspace the route network will run through;
• the cabin: the year of the last refurbishment and how much was done then.

A separate line for this type is operating history. A large part of the fleet worked in charter and with government operators, and that is a different profile in cycles and intensity from a corporate aircraft with the same hours.

Every item converts into money: either a discount off the price or a line in the first-year budget.

What it costs

Production closed in 2020, and aircraft come from the pre-owned market. Listings for the Legacy 600 hold to a corridor of $3.5–9.4 million; the Aircraft Bluebook of summer 2024 puts a 2010 aircraft above the listing market, at about $10.7 million. A Legacy 650 built in 2015–2019 runs in the AvBuyer price guide at $16.75–20.25 million, individual offers start from $14.5 million, and the market average is about $19 million. The list price of a new Legacy 650E in 2019 was about $25.9 million. All figures are to my information.

The spread inside the corridor is explained by year of build, airframe hours, engine life remaining, active hourly-programme coverage and the freshness of the cabin. The price of a particular aircraft follows from its records; the corridor shows the boundaries within which the bargaining happens.

Who it suits

The Legacy 650 covers the task that calls for thirteen to fourteen seats, a long three-zone cabin and legs of up to six hours at an entry budget below its contemporaries with a purpose-built business airframe. After production ended, the niche was taken by the Praetor 600 and the Praetor 500.

The nearest neighbours in the class are the Falcon 900 and the Challenger 604. The method of matching an aircraft to a route network is in the article on business jet categories; what eats the price on the way out of the asset is in the piece on residual value.

Alexander Filimonov — business aviation: sourcing, purchase and entry into service of aircraft.