On February 3, 2015, the multi-mission freighter, the Embraer KC-390 Millennium, made its maiden flight, marking the beginning of a new chapter in the Transport Aviation of the Brazilian Air Force (FAB).
The aircraft was designed to become the backbone of the operations area. The flight took place in the morning, taking off from Embraer's runway in Gavião Peixoto, in the interior of São Paulo, and lasted one hour and nineteen minutes, flying over a farmland. “At the controls were two Embraer test pilots, including retired FAB Colonel Marcos Oliveira Lima, and two flight engineers from the company,” the manufacturer reported.
The date, which marks a decade since the inaugural flight, also reflects on the impact of the KC-390 Millennium project on the FAB. The aircraft was responsible for enabling several transport and aerial refueling missions over the years.
The model is a strategic cargo plane with the capacity to transport up to 26 tons of cargo, including heavy vehicles, equipment and humanitarian cargo. In addition, it is capable of carrying out missions such as air logistics transport, in-flight refueling, aeromedical evacuation and search and rescue.
Officially received by the FAB in September 2019, the KC-390 Millennium has been operated by units such as the First Squadron of the First Transport Group (1º/1º GT), known as Esquadrão Gordo, and the First Troop Transport Group (1º GTT), the Zeus Squadron.
