I’m eagerly counting down the days until we deliver the first E2 to Widerøe Airlines on April 4. That event is the crowning achievement of years of planning and building Embraer’s most complex and sophisticated new family of commercial airplanes.

When that green and white E190-E2 is handed over to the airline next month, it will have been backed by 2,000 flight hours on a fleet of E2 prototypes and 45,000 test hours in labs and on rigs. The intensive test campaign was necessary to ensure Widerøe – and all our E2 customers – has a reliable airplane right from the start. It’s a commitment we made back when we launched the E2 program.

It was all well and good to conduct those tests in the warm summer heat of Brazil and in the controlled environment of a hangar. But to really ensure we make good on our reliability promise, we took it one step further. A lot further. Earlier this month, we flew one of our E190-E2 prototypes to Norway so that everyone at Widerøe could see, touch, and explore the jet before its own E2 enters revenue service.

The aircraft stopped in Trondheim, Bodo, Tromsø and Bergen during the ten-day familiarization program. Often in below-zero temperatures, pilots and hundreds of employees from the airline’s engineering, flight operations, maintenance training, IT and ground operations divisions had hands-on sessions and aircraft walkarounds. Representatives from the Norwegian CAA also participated. Cabin crew deployed one of the evacuation slides just to see it in action, and ground crews rehearsed towing the E2 into an airport gate.

The on-site pre-delivery tour is just another example of how we have worked to make the E2’s entry-into-service smooth and reliable for our customers from day one. On the our website, we’re also showing a fascinating four-part documentary, Pioneer Flights, that takes a behind the scenes look at the E2 program.

Watch the teaser here.