US aviation agency will retire by 2028 the floppy disks still used in air traffic control
The medium, created in 1971, remains in systems that provide weather data to controllers; more than 400 facilities will get modern equipment.
Translated from the Portuguese original by the Panorama newsroom. Read in Portuguese
Summary written by the Panorama newsroom from the sources listed below. Facts are attributed to the original publications.
The FAA, the US aviation agency, has announced that it will stop using floppy disks in the country's air traffic control systems, Jornal Nacional reported in a story published on g1. The replacement, however, will be gradual and is only expected to be completed by the end of 2028.
According to the report, the medium is still present in old equipment that passes weather data and other essential information to air traffic controllers. The FAA's plan is to replace the equipment at more than 400 facilities with a current platform that brings this data together on digital monitors. The switch is expected to simplify controllers' routine, cut maintenance failures and increase safety.
According to a report by the US Congress's oversight body cited by the newscast, the FAA's systems had a 1980s interface and relied on manual updates. Modernization dragged on for decades, and maintenance became increasingly difficult.
Launched in 1971, the floppy disk shrank in size over the generations until it became an icon of computing. Its most widespread version held just 1.44 megabytes, a fraction of the space a single cell phone photo can take up today. Practically out of everyday use for more than 25 years, it survived in unexpected settings: until 2019, the US Armed Forces still used it in a system linked to the nuclear arsenal.