Sixteen months after L3Harris announced it was divesting its Commercial Aviation Solutions (CAS) arm, the latter has emerged as Acron Aviation under private equity owner TJC.
The completion of the sale was announced early New York time on 31 March, and spins off the US defence giant’s former commercial avionics and pilot training activities into a roughly $800 million-revenue standalone business with 1,400 employees.
Named after the Greek word for mountain peak, the St Petersburg, Florida-based business will be led by its former head Alan Crawford as chief executive. He says that as an independent commercial aviation-focused entity, it will be free to grow organically and through acquisition.
“We are very excited about this new chapter,” he says. “This is an opportunity to create something new and catch up with the investments we would have liked to have made [under L3Harris]. The focus is going to be very much on growth.”
Acron will have four business segments.
Its avionics portfolio includes cockpit-voice and flight-data recorders, collision avoidance systems, navigation products, displays, and a joint venture with Thales called ACSS that provides surveillance and communications products.
Acron is also one of a handful of manufacturers of full flight simulators (FFS) and other training devices, and this will become a second arm of the business, based in Crawley near London Gatwick.
A third segment, training services, also based at Crawley, operates a 10-bay simulator centre for airline customers, with a second operation in Bangkok. Acron additionally offers ab initio pilot training at Orlando Sanford airport in the USA, and at Cranfield airport in the UK.
The fourth business is data analytics, which Crawford says will provide data-based intelligence to customers based on anonymised readings from simulators and avionics equipment.
L3Harris revealed its intention to sell CAS for $800 million in November 2023, as part of a strategy to focus the group on its core defence and security markets.
Acron will compete in markets dominated by larger players, including CAE in simulator training and the likes of Collins, Honeywell and Thales in avionics. However, Crawford maintains Acron’s spread of activity gives it an advantage in a world where so-called big data is becoming more important.
“There are bigger avionics companies, bigger training companies, but no one does both, so this opens up opportunities to provide a continuous feedback loop to customers,” he says.
Crawford also sees a chance to create a niche in advanced air mobility pilot training, as well as lower-cost training devices he believes could replace some demand for FFS as airlines adapt their training models under new guidance from regulators.
TJC – formerly The Jordan Company – is an investment firm specialising in acquiring companies in the telecoms, power and logistics sector.
Crawford adds: “We have been really encouraged by the time we have spent with TJC. We feel they have a real alignment with our management team.”
