Typical of the newer industries in Brazil is motor vehicle manufacturing, with its related auto parts production, both of which have made great strides over the last three decades. The renewed dynamism and modernization of the Brazilian automotive industry are broadly attributed to trade liberalization which began in 1990, the introduction of economy models in 1993, and the start of the Real Plan in July 1994. In the seven years since 1990, Brazil has moved up from tenth to eighth place in world output. In 1997 it produced more than two million vehicles and earned almost US $5 billion from exports; motor vehicles accounted for almost 10 percent of the total value of Brazil's exports for the year. By the turn of the century it is expected that Brazil will be one of the five largest automotive producers in the world. In 1997, almost 64 percent of the vehicles exported went to MERCOSUL countries, with Argentina accounting for 75 percent of the exports to this common market. Vehicle imports totaled just over 303,000, of which 85 percent were imported by manufacturers and 15 percent by dealers.

[Top]

             In 1899, four years before Wilbur and Orville Wright flew a heavier-than-air machine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Alberto Santos Dumont, a Brazilian, piloted a dirigible that left from the field of the Aero Club of France, circled the Eiffel Tower, and returned to its base in 29.5 minutes. It was a 7 mile (11 km) trip. In 1906, before official witnesses and a large crowd in Paris, Santos Dumont won the Taca Archdeacon Prize when he flew a self-propelled, heavier-than-air machine for 820 feet 250 metres). Although a Brazilian was one of aviation's first pioneers, the aircraft industry in Brazil only began in earnest 20 years ago. Today the success of planes wholly designed and manufactured in Brazil, mainly by Embraer, and exported to countries on every continent, makes Brazil's aircraft industry the sixth largest in the world. The greatest number of Embraer's planes have been sold to customers in the United States and Western Europe. Embraer's Tucano a turboprop military trainer, is used by the Brazilian Air Force and in the air forces in twelve other countries including France and the United Kingdom. In 1998 thirteen customers in nine countries ordered Embraer's ERJ-145, a 50-seat regional jet.