FAA Chief Promises "No More Floppy Disks" Will Be Used In Air Traffic Control In Major Overhaul

US air traffic control systems are to get an upgrade, finally ending the use of 30-year-old operating system Windows 95, and dispensing with floppy disks and paper strips in the process.

On Wednesday, June 4, the acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) informed the House Appropriations Committee that they were to begin replacing the aging system in place at air traffic control around the US. 

"The whole idea is to replace the system, but that is going to take some time to get there," Chris Rocheleau said during the committee meeting. 

"Yesterday we issued a request for information for the best and brightest companies to come in and help us do that transition. I think that's a real opportunity for us to understand, but the plan as we described it earlier is to essentially continue to operate the system as we do today and then switch over to the new technologies [...] no more floppy disks or paper strips."

Pressure groups, including Modern Skies, believe that the air traffic control system is in major need of an upgrade. Most air traffic control around the country uses floppy disks, which (for younger readers) were developed in the late 1960s as a way of storing data using magnetic storage inside an iconic hard plastic case. They have been superseded by CDs, more memory storage inside computers, cloud storage, you name it, but are in surprisingly wide use in several industries where hardware is used in a lifetime of decades.

For example, the disks were used by the Strategic Automated Command and Control System (SACCS), which coordinates the operations of the US’s nuclear missiles and bombers, right up until 2019. Boeing's 747s are also updated not by ultrafast internet connection, but by placing those trusty rectangles into their navigation and avionics computers.

Nevertheless, hearing that air traffic control is run through floppy disks and paper printouts in 2025 is not the most reassuring thing. Republican representative David Joyce told Rocheleau that he had been up to Canada to see air traffic control there, "and when you go into our towers and you see the paper and the floppy disks; that's not the way it should be, and I appreciate the efforts that you're going to take to fix that."

While there is skepticism that new systems will improve safety – with pilot error accounting for around three-quarters of aircraft accidents worldwide – the recent FAA report determined that "51 of its 138 systems are unsustainable, citing outdated functionality, a lack of spare parts, and more".

"Over half of these unsustainable systems are especially concerning, but FAA has been slow to modernize. Some system modernization projects won't be complete for another 10-13 years," the organization added in the report. "FAA also doesn't have plans to modernize other systems in need—3 of which are at least 30 years old."

Replacing the system will come with its own challenges. For instance, it may have to be robust against hackers, which is less important when data is transferred by a technology that pre-dates the Internet. 

While the FAA looks to take action, there remains skepticism that the system will actually be built.

"This has been the same mantra for the past 30 years. Give them more money. They'll build the new system. It'll work better, work harder. And this is what airlines tell the FAA. This is what the FAA says they want to do each time the agency comes up for reauthorization," aviation industry analyst Robert W. Mann Jr. told NPR. "And we've been doing that for well over 30 years now, and we've gotten the same results."

Maybe this time will be different, or maybe in another three decades we'll be back to tell you floppy disks are about to be eliminated from air traffic control by an AI robot FAA chief.