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US air traffic control enters the 21st century, starts to abandon floppy disks
(www.theregister.com)
this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2026
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Other countries would be horrified to hear that critical infrastructure had been so neglected, but this is just another day in the US of fucking A
It's way more common than you think.
If something works then you don't need to fix it.
There was actually a benefit to being behind the curve on this.
The scheduling is done on modern machines, the actual flight control console is a glorified comms station with a very beefy audio recorder.
It's built to last, and to be as reliable as possible, while still being repairable by a skilled technician.
Any update needs to be as solid and reliable as what it replaces. That's the key, not being advanced or some shit.
ICAO world is behind the curve yeah but not a century behind.
OPS tech is old protocols like X25 and X400 but on IP, not on serial cables and switches.
Networks are using fiber channels, servers are using VMs, kubernetes clusters and stuff like that. It’s old tech on modern hardware. Even the voice coms went full VOIP (at least for gnd-gnd com) during the last decade.
Yes we stay behind the tech curve on purpose, but FAA lagging so much behind the rest of the world is just another proof of their lack of investment.
It really is a crazy country. I can't imagine the stress of living there.
It's fairly typical of aviation around the world
Old is safe, and if it's reliable, why change it?
We just add new layers on top of the old system
For the record, whole lot of planes using floppy disks too
The US needed floppy disc to launch nukes until a few years ago.
Still, not really US exclusive. The German Navy also still uses them.