FAA says air traffic control will phase out floppy disks in the next two years
Excerpt:
The US Federal Aviation Administration said on Thursday it will replace by the end of 2028 the outdated floppy disks used for weather and other critical information at more than 400 air traffic control facilities across the country.
The Enterprise Information Display System will replace four systems dating back to the 1980s and will put important operational information in one place so controllers can quickly see air traffic updates.
.....The FAA relies on telecoms systems it is racing to replace as well as decades-old Compaq computers and replacement parts bought on eBay. The US has the world’s most complex airspace and faces a shortage of several thousand air traffic controllers.
The country’s air traffic facilities cannot talk to one another and operate on individual analog computers. “Every facility is a silo,” Bedford told Reuters in a recent interview.
The FAA has also been working for years to end a long-ridiculed, decades-old practice of air traffic controllers using paper flight strips to keep track of aircraft. But adopting the change, which started in 2022, at 49 major airports will take until at least 2028. A total of 27 major airports have already done away with the paper strips.
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Literally putting your life in the hands of a dinosaur, aka floppy discs, when flying.
Floppy disks don't fly, chose an airline for pilots that do fly or a private jet with thinkers, weather especially.