ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Moved in and ready for takeoff, the team at Acron Aviation is already hard at work in its new headquarters.

What You Need To Know

Acron Aviation is in the global aviation industry. It develops a variety of aerospace technology including flight recorders, cockpit equipment, surveillance systems, defense technology and more

Acron Aviation opened its new headquarters in downtown St. Petersburg

It is located in the City Center on the sixth floor. The address is 100 2nd Ave S., St. Petersburg, Fla., 33701

“We designed all of these parts in-house. We get to design each piece and each circuit board and select all the components. So we’re doing the software, the hardware and bringing them all together,” said Dean Watkins, advanced concept engineer at Acron Aviation.

Watkins and others are working on both commercial and defense aerospace technology. The company builds things like flight recorders, cockpit equipment, surveillance systems, and defense technology.

“This is a camera gimbal that we can actually move around and they place this on the bottom of the aircraft on a helicopter, and police would use them for scanning around, check things out,” said Daniel Lipke, a field engineer with Acron Aviation.

CEO Allan Crawford and staff on Monday celebrated moving into the company’s new downtown St. Pete location, which is the new headquarters for the global company.

“I mean, we’ve got Albert Whitted Airport right next door here,” Crawford said. “As I always say to my colleagues here in Acron Aviation, we’re really lucky in that we can look out the window and see a plane flying overhead. And chances are we’ve got some equipment on that.”

Crawford said Acron Aviation is ready for the City of St. Pete to expand its transportation corridor, including being ready for the future launch of air taxis.

Crawford said the company already knows which parts it would supply on those types of aircraft.

“We’ll provide flight recorders to make sure that if anything happened, we can find out and keep it safe,” said Crawford. “We also provide, most importantly, what’s called detect and avoid. So that’s making sure when those aircraft are autonomous and when they’re piloted as well. But most importantly, when they’re autonomous, they can see where other aircraft are, where buildings are, and navigate away from them.”

In reality, air taxis are still a few years away from taking off in St. Pete. But Acron Aviation engineers said when those do launch, they will be ready to make them fly.

“We’re working on all different types of products to make those safer and to help them get flying right away,” said Watkins.