Florida is a hotspot for the United States’ $125 billion aerospace industry, with so much space-related activity that part of the state’s east coast is dubbed “Space Coast.” This beachfront section of the Atlantic runs adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and through Cocoa Beach, Palm Bay and other beach communities. This concentration of industry activity allows the Orlando region to draw major aerospace and defense firms. Read on to learn about Orlando’s aerospace leaders.
Aerospace Companies in Orlando
- National Airlines
- Northern Jet
- JetBlue
- Skyship Services
- Lockheed Martin
Top Aerospace Companies in Orlando
Northern Jet offers private air travel solutions, including membership card options and a fractional jet ownership program. Its fleet includes aircraft of varying sizes, ranging from light jets that can carry seven passengers to heavy jets with capacity for up to 12 passengers and eight hours of flight time.
The commercial aviation company National Airlines offers a diverse portfolio of products and services for business aviation. Its core solutions support charter operations for cargo and passenger itineraries. National Airlines also has service offerings across areas like maintenance and insurance.
JetBlue is a budget-conscious airline that provides passenger and cargo transit to destinations in the United States, Latin America, Europe and the Caribbean. It gained early recognition for providing branded amenities — like blue potato chips for in-flight service — that surpass the standard level in economy class. The airline today boasts an annual carriage volume of over 44.5 million passengers.
Skyship Services is an aviation technology company that offers products and services in the LTA, or Lighter-Than-Air, category. LTA aircraft use aerostatic lift technology that utilizes gasses like hydrogen and helium, which are lighter than atmospheric air. Using the power of the gas’s buoyancy, LTA crafts can achieve vertical lift and flotation without forward airspeed.
The augmented reality company Red 6 is a provider of deep tech-enabled training tools for aviation professionals. Its technology offerings include ATARS — short for Advanced Tactical Augmented Reality System — a tool that enhances pilot training by using AR to blend real-world work environments and virtual elements that mimic threats, weather and other training challenges.
Signature Aviation is a fixed base operator, or FBO, and its array of service offerings support business and private aviation providers. Its offerings include aircraft maintenance, ground handling, hangar management and sustainable fueling services, which it offers for aircraft that range in size from small private jets to large cargo planes.
The aircraft support provider TECHNICAir offers MRO, or maintenance, repair and overhaul, services. It specializes in working on small and mid-sized turbine planes, which typically are in service as business jets. The company works out of its own facilities in Europe and the United States and additionally offers mobile service units that meet planes where they are grounded.
General Dynamics Mission Systems is an electronics technology provider to the security, intelligence and defense sectors. It builds crucial systems for aircraft and spacecraft operations, supporting management of communications, satellite mission payloads, ground systems and space engineering. The aggregate of its products and services is a holistic technology portfolio that powers work across land, sea, air and space.
Lockheed Martin designs, engineers and manufactures technologies for surveillance, defense, aviation and space exploration. The firm’s history goes back over a century, and today it operates dedicated divisions for aeronautics and space. Its space projects include work on the United States Space Force’s Space Fence, which is a terrestrial radar system that monitors activity and debris in Earth’s orbit.
Oshkosh AeroTech, which is part of Oshkosh Corporation, delivers a broad portfolio of products for the aviation sector, including baggage tractors, passenger boarding bridges and specialty electrical power systems for aircraft hangars. Its offerings also encompass airport monitoring, operations and maintenance solutions, and Oshkosh AeroTech provides customers with equipment refurbishment options.
