How hot is the business jet market? With fuel prices at record high and commercial carriers in the dumps, both orders and deliveries are continuing unabated for the biggest manufacturers. Brazilian outfit Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica, better known as Embraer, has set a delivery record with more than 52 aircraft produced in the second quarter of 2008, including nine in its Executive Aviation (business jet) segment. The quarter’s deliveries amount to a 44 percent increase over those made in the second quarter of 2007.

Embraer has emerged from a period in 2006 and early 2007, when deliveries had slowed due to manufacturing bottlenecks. With a major capital investment in new labor, factories, and suppliers, Embraer has rendered those constrictions a thing of the past. The company’s plans call for the delivery of 215 jets by year’s end.

At least 15 of those planes should be Phenom 100s, the company’s much anticipated Very Light Jet (VLJ). With FAA certification just around the corner, first deliveries are expected for the second half of this year. Orders for that VLJ and its sister craft, the forthcoming Phenom 300 expected for 2010, have pushed Embraer’s backlog to $20.7 billion. Along with its line of larger Legacy and Lineage business jets, those planes will give Embraer a full suite of aircraft in virtually every private jet category.