Floppy Disks and Windows 95: The FAA Needs New Tech
Remember the good ol' days of Windows 95? No? That's because Microsoft ended support for the operating system nearly 25 years ago. Windows has seen several versions come and go since then, but it seems that the Federal Aviation Administration hasn't kept up. According to Windows Central, the FAA is only now planning to phase out the 30-year-old OS.
At a budget hearing recently, FAA chief Chris Rocheleau noted that a major tech overhaul is in the planning stages. The FAA will no longer use Windows 95 for air traffic control. Floppy disks, another tech relic, will also be canned—something that should have happened a long time ago, one would think. Paper strips containing plane info will also be replaced by more modern tech—if such an overhaul actually happens.
The FAA has good intentions, but raising the money for the upgrade may not be easy. The agency's plan for revamping its technology, laid out in a document titled Brand New Air Traffic Control System: America is Building Again, points to the agency's current budget as inadequate for the task ahead.
'Over the past 15 years, the annual appropriation to the Facilities and Equipment (F&E) account used to sustain and improve most of FAA's air traffic control infrastructure has remained essentially flat at approximately $3 billion per year,' the plan notes. 'This stagnant funding has caused the FAA to lose about $1 billion in purchasing power due to inflation, as the agency seeks to maintain aging systems and infrastructure and meet ambitious goals to modernize the system for increased safety and efficiency of the NAS [National Airspace System].'
When it comes to outdated tech, the FAA isn't flying alone. British Airways, which retired its fleet of Boeing 747-400 planes during the COVID pandemic, revealed that the planes had made use of floppy disks the entire time. Never mind that floppy disks only store 1.44MB of data—the airline simply had crew insert up to eight disks to load critical flight information every 28 days.
Interestingly, relying on floppy disks to update the avionics may have provided a certain amount of security for what is clearly important data to protect, a la Battlestar Galactica. Modern, remotely updated systems require extra precautions to stay secure. Still, it's a relief to know that modern planes are using newer and (presumably) more capable avionics.
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