The floppy disk era in American air traffic control is officially ending. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced on Thursday that the Federal Aviation Administration has begun replacing the floppy-disk-based systems controllers still rely on with one modern digital system — the Enterprise Information Display System, known as E-IDS.
Duffy put it plainly: “Good news America: floppy disks are out, 21st century tech is in.”
E-IDS replaces four separate systems dating from the 1980s at more than 400 FAA facilities, giving controllers one modern display instead of four aging ones. The first installations are at Atlantic City International, Nashville International and Greater Rochester International airports, together with data hubs in Atlanta and Salt Lake City — five sites to start, reaching 435 sites by the end of 2028.
The work is part of the Brand New Air Traffic Control System, the administration’s full rebuild of the system that guides American flights, backed by the $12.5 billion put toward the new system. In September, the Government Accountability Office flagged the risks carried by the FAA’s aging equipment — the same generation of systems E-IDS now retires.
For the flying public, this is the unglamorous work that decides whether flights run safely and on time: the people guiding planes through American skies will read one modern screen built for today’s traffic instead of four systems older than many of the pilots they direct — and the floppy disk, still at work in the towers long after it vanished from people’s homes, finally goes.
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