Melbourne, Florida Aerospace Guide

The Melbourne aerospace section has five deep guides, one per major employer or program at Melbourne Orlando International Airport, and the table pairs each common question with its key fact and guide.

The Northrop Grumman Melbourne campus guide and the Joint STARS guide cover the Joint STARS radar aircraft program and the work done on the campus today. The Embraer and Dassault guides cover the two business jet companies at MLB, and the Florida Tech flight training guide covers the university's pilot program at the airport. The L3Harris headquarters guide in the Melbourne economy section covers the city's largest corporate headquarters. Last verified: October 14, 2026, on the City of Melbourne 2025 ACFR, Melbourne Orlando International Airport and company pages.

Melbourne Orlando International Airport names Northrop Grumman, Embraer Executive Jets, L3Harris, Collins Aerospace, Thales, Satcom Direct, Avidyne and Dassault Falcon Jet among the companies on and around its campus (MLB business opportunities).

The full list on the airport authority's business page also includes STS Mod Center, GE Transportation and Southeast Aerospace, and the page puts the campus at a daily population of more than 20,000 individuals generating an annual economic impact of more than $3 billion (MLB). The airport's land development page uses a slightly higher figure, an economic impact exceeding $3.1 billion, and lists Sheltair and STS Aviation Group among its notable tenants (MLB land development). Both pages are current airport statements rather than a dated study, so the Melbourne figure is best quoted as an approximate one.

Companies looking for space at Melbourne Orlando International Airport deal with the airport's business development team, which handles land planning, real estate deals and leases; the airport publishes a Future Land Use Map of aeronautical and non-aeronautical parcels and takes inquiries at 321-723-6227 (MLB, MLB). The terminal address is 1 Air Terminal Parkway, Melbourne, and the authority markets MLB as the coastal gateway to Central Florida on the Space Coast (MLB).

Northrop Grumman is Melbourne's largest employer, with 6,818 employees in 2025, or 16.46 percent of total city employment, according to the City of Melbourne's financial report (2025 ACFR, Schedule 16).

The same City of Melbourne table shows how the aerospace mix has shifted in nine years. Northrop Grumman more than doubled from 2,894 employees in 2016, when it ranked second. L3Harris Technologies fell from 2,532 employees and third place in 2016 to 1,778 and fifth place in 2025, and Rockwell Collins, Inc., renamed Collins Aerospace after its November 27, 2018 purchase by UTC, held steady at 1,411 against 1,467 (ACFR).

Counts in the city table come from the City of Melbourne Revenue Department and the companies themselves, so they reflect each employer's reported Melbourne headcount rather than a federal survey (ACFR). The ten principal employers together account for 21,188 jobs, 51.14 percent of total city employment.

Northrop Grumman says its Melbourne campus designs, develops and tests advanced manned aircraft and battle management command and control systems in 17 buildings on 109 acres next to Melbourne Orlando International Airport (Northrop Grumman).

Programs the company lists for Melbourne include command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C2ISR), advanced development programs, the U.S. Navy E-2D Advanced Hawkeye and the Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (Northrop Grumman). A November 14, 2014 Northrop Grumman release, datelined Melbourne, called the site the Manned Aircraft Design Center of Excellence and named it, with Robins Air Force Base and the Lake Charles Maintenance and Modification Center, as a place where the E-8C Joint STARS fleet was sustained under a $210 million Air Force contract (Northrop Grumman, 2014).

The E-8C itself is a Boeing 707-300 series airframe remanufactured with radar, communications and control systems, in the Air Force's description (U.S. Air Force). The Joint STARS guide covers the Melbourne chapter of that aircraft, and the Northrop Grumman Melbourne campus guide covers the site's growth since then.

Embraer delivers business jets at its Executive Jets Global Customer Center in Melbourne, and Dassault Falcon Jet maintains Falcon jets in a facility at Melbourne Orlando International Airport that opened on October 14, 2025 (Embraer, Dassault).

Embraer announced on August 28, 2025 that it had passed 2,000 business jet deliveries, with the milestone aircraft, a Praetor 500, handed over at the Melbourne Global Customer Center (Embraer). Its 75,000 square foot Engineering and Technology Center opened on September 8, 2014 on General Aviation Drive at the Melbourne airport, on 13 acres facing the Phenom 100 and Phenom 300 final assembly facility, and was the company's first such center outside Brazil (Space Florida).

According to Dassault Falcon Jet, the Dassault complex covers 250,000 square feet, can perform major maintenance and modifications on up to 14 Falcon aircraft simultaneously, handles work from line maintenance through C-checks, and includes a 54,000 square foot paint shop (Dassault Falcon Jet). The Melbourne project grew during construction: Space Florida's announcement described a 175,000 square foot complex with opening set for late 2024 (Space Florida), so older references to its size and date are out of date.

L3Harris Technologies keeps its corporate headquarters on NASA Boulevard in Melbourne, but the two new state-supported buildings it announced in December 2024 are in neighboring Palm Bay (L3Harris, L3Harris, 2024).

The headquarters address is 1025 W. NASA Boulevard, Melbourne, FL 32919 (L3Harris).

On December 6, 2024 L3Harris announced a $2 million High Impact Business Performance grant from the state of Florida, paid as $1 million in 2025 and $1 million in 2027, for two new Palm Bay facilities (L3Harris). The first, a satellite integration facility of about 93,000 square feet, is expected to add about 100 new jobs at an average annual salary of about $105,000. The second, an advanced microelectronics facility of about 98,000 square feet, is expected to add about 100 jobs at about $111,000.

Inside the city limits the trend runs the other way: the City of Melbourne employer table shows L3Harris going from 2,532 employees in 2016 to 1,778 in 2025 (ACFR). The L3Harris headquarters guide in the economy section covers the NASA Boulevard campus.

Florida Tech trains pilots at its Emil Buehler Center for Aviation Training and Research on Melbourne Orlando International Airport, 2.5 miles from the Melbourne campus (Florida Tech).

The Buehler Center holds the university's aircraft maintenance team and hangar, briefing rooms and planning areas, and the fleet is all Piper: Warrior, Archer, Seminole and Pilot 100i aircraft (Florida Tech facilities). The flight course sequence starts with Flight 1, which ends with at least 40 hours flown and a private pilot certificate, and the program ends with at minimum a commercial pilot certificate with instrument and multiengine ratings and at least 190 hours of flight training (Florida Tech flight training).

Florida Tech's Melbourne campus is at 150 W. University Blvd., phone (321) 674-8000 (Florida Tech). The Florida Tech flight training guide covers the course sequence, the aircraft and how the degree shortens the path to an airline transport pilot certificate.