“Can we bring back the glory days of flying, like when there was the Pan Am Clipper?”

This is the question that Embraer Executive Jets vice president of interior design, Jay Beever, asked, which led directly to a 32- to 36-seat VIP shuttle concept of the Embraer E-195 regional jet. The Brazilian company’s executive jets division unveiled this concept intended for both airlines and aircraft charter firms early last month.

The E-195 Shuttle is essentially a stock airliner with an interior that has “a high-end business aircraft touch and feel,” said Beever, though it retains the white plastic overhead bins found on E-195s in service with some 60 airlines. It also has the wider articulating VIP seats found in the Lineage 1000–itself an extended-range, executive jet version of the E-190–along with higher-end carpeting and half-wall-high wood paneling, including pullout tray tables, found in finely appointed business jets.

According to Beever, the overall seats are 31 inches wide with a 20-inch internal width and a 50- to 57-inch seat pitch for the respective 32- and 36-seat configurations. Like the seats on the Lineage 1000, they will also have leg and head rests, as well as individual power outlets and passenger control units for personal entertainment, lighting and other functions. Since the seats can rotate 180 degrees, club seating is also possible.

“As far as we know, this kind of crossover product hasn’t been attempted before,” said Beever. “Quite honestly, we don’t know if it’s primarily considered an airliner or a business jet; we’ll let the market figure that out, but it would work equally well as an all-first-class airliner, an executive jet charter aircraft for large groups, such as sports teams, or a company shuttle.”

Embraer has developed two main floor plans for the E-195 Shuttle, a 1+1 configuration with overhead bins on each side (where “every seat is both an aisle and window seat,” noted Beever). In the 2+0 option, the overhead bins are only on the side where there are seats, so that the aisle is unobstructed. Club-two seating is possible in the 1+1 configuration, while the 2+0 layout would allow for club-four seating.

Aircraft specifications mirror those for the E-195 airliner: 2,600-nm range; 111,973-pound mtow; 30,754-pound maximum payload; and 1,123-cu-ft of baggage capacity. Embraer has not yet announced pricing for the E-195 Shuttle.