Floppy disks disappeared from most computers more than two decades ago. In parts of the United States air traffic control system, however, they remain in use — and the Federal Aviation Administration expects to need another two years to eliminate them completely.
The FAA has begun deploying its new Enterprise Information Display System (E-IDS), which will replace aging equipment used by controllers to access operational information such as weather data, airport conditions, airspace restrictions, NOTAMs and pilot reports.
Some of the technology being replaced dates from the 1980s and 1990s. One of the systems, known as IDS-4, runs on MS-DOS and relies on computers equipped with 3.5-inch floppy disk drives.
The disks are not being used to directly control aircraft or radar. Still, they are part of the infrastructure that supplies controllers with information required to manage traffic, an unusually visible example of how old some elements of the world's largest air traffic control system have become.
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Their survival is one of the clearest signs of how long some supporting technology has remained in service within the US air traffic control network.
Decades-old technology
The FAA plans to install E-IDS at 435 facilities across the United States, replacing four existing information-display systems with a common platform. The transition is not expected to be completed until the end of 2028.
The first deployments include facilities in Atlantic City, Nashville and Rochester, along with processing centers in Atlanta and Salt Lake City.
The age of the equipment has increasingly become an issue as the United States tries to modernize its air traffic control infrastructure. Other legacy technology still in service includes decades-old computers, difficult-to-source replacement components and systems that cannot easily exchange information with one another.
In some cases, replacement parts for obsolete equipment have become so difficult to obtain that components have been sourced through secondary markets, including eBay.
Paper flight strips, another familiar feature of traditional air traffic control facilities, have also not disappeared completely. The FAA is separately digitizing that process, with the transition also expected to be completed in 2028.
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The replacement program is unfolding against a backdrop of renewed scrutiny of the resilience and age of US air traffic control infrastructure.
Modernization after years of problems
The discovery that floppy disks remain part of the system is particularly striking after a series of incidents drew attention to the condition and resilience of US air traffic control infrastructure.
Newark Liberty International Airport experienced major disruptions in 2025 after radar and communications failures left controllers temporarily unable to see or communicate with aircraft. Staffing shortages and equipment problems have also repeatedly affected operations at major US airports.
There is no indication that floppy disks or the information-display systems now being replaced contributed to those events. They are separate parts of a highly complex air traffic control network.
Their continued use nevertheless illustrates the scale of the modernization challenge facing the FAA: critical information used by controllers is still passing through hardware and software designed in an era when MS-DOS PCs and floppy disks were standard office technology.
The E-IDS replacement is one element of a much larger effort to rebuild US air traffic control infrastructure. The FAA intends to replace communications equipment, radar systems and other aging technology across the National Airspace System over the coming years.
Until that transition reaches the information displays, however, the floppy disk — introduced commercially in the 1970s and abandoned by mainstream computer manufacturers decades ago — will remain part of everyday technology inside some US air traffic control facilities.
