Business jets do not usually change much. A new variant means a bit more range, a quieter cabin, a fresh avionics load. The aeroplane that Flexjet accepted on 18 September 2026 has something genuinely new in it: a 42-inch curved 4K OLED screen built into the sidewall where a window would normally be.

Embraer calls it the Smart Window, and says the Praetor 600E is the first certified aircraft to fly with a fully operational one. Flexjet, the launch customer, took delivery of the first example and expects a dozen more before the end of the year.

The handover arrived ahead of schedule, which in business aviation is rare enough to be worth noting on its own.

A Window That Is Not a Window

The Smart Window replaces a section of cabin sidewall with a screen curved to match the arc of the fuselage, so it sits flush rather than bolted on. It can run three different high-definition real-time views of the world outside, which is the virtual-window function. It can also simply be a 42-inch television.

The practical argument is about floor space. A conventional cabin monitor needs a credenza or a cabinet to live in, and that furniture eats the aisle. Build the screen into the wall and the area in front of it stays clear. Embraer has arranged the divan and two facing seats around it, which turns that corner of the cabin into a meeting room.

Aviation Week's walkthrough of the cabin, including the screen in operation.

The rest of the cabin work is more conventional but not trivial: new Embraer-designed seats with electric-assisted controls that berth into a lie-flat bed, expanded headroom above each seating position, an upper tech panel for air and light, and voice control for the cabin management system. Starlink handles connectivity across Flexjet's aircraft.

Still a Praetor Underneath

None of the cabin theatre would matter if the aeroplane could not go anywhere. The Praetor 600E keeps the published range of 4,018 nautical miles with four passengers under NBAA IFR reserves, which is what makes London to New York or São Paulo to Miami a nonstop proposition rather than a fuel stop.

Embraer describes the 600E as the world's furthest-flying super-midsize jet. That is the manufacturer's claim rather than an independent finding, and the super-midsize category is competitive enough that rivals will have their own version of it, but the underlying Praetor 600 has a well-established reputation for reach in its class.

Why Flexjet Keeps Going First

Flexjet has now been the fleet launch customer for five Embraer products in a row: the Legacy Executive in 2003, the Phenom 300 in 2010, the Legacy 450 in 2016, the Praetor 500 and 600 in 2019, and now the Praetor 500E and 600E.

The commercial logic runs both ways. Embraer gets a guaranteed first operator and a fleet-scale launch order; Flexjet gets exclusivity on the newest cabin in the category for the period that matters most to a fractional-ownership sales pitch.

The current agreement is the largest of them. Announced in February 2025 and worth around $7 billion, it covers 182 firm aircraft with options on 30 more, spanning the Praetor 600E, the Praetor 500E and the Phenom 300E, plus an expanded support package.

The Interesting Part

Silvestro offered a blunter explanation than the press release language usually allows, and it is the most revealing line in the announcement.

Flexjet's owners, he said, have been trending younger, and they want the cabin itself to be part of the experience rather than simply the means of getting somewhere. That is a real shift. For most of business aviation's history the selling point was time saved. Increasingly it is what happens during the time spent.

A screen in the wall is a small thing. A customer base that buys an aeroplane partly for its screen is a rather larger one.

Sources: Flexjet press release, 18 September 2026, with quotes from Michael Silvestro and Michael Amalfitano; Embraer Executive Jets; Aviation International News; Aviation Week.