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“Good news America: floppies are out, 21st century tech remains in,” United States Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated. Duffy published a video the other day about the upgrade in which a newscaster explaining the FAA’s out-of-date innovation states, “the FAA systems are basically operating on Windows 95.”
Like other Trump appointees, Duffy fasted to provide credit to the president, although the strategy was shepherded through by authorities in both the Biden and Trump administrations. “The biggest country worldwide is worthy of a cutting edge air traffic control service system, and under President Trump, we’re providing simply that,” Duffy stated.
In August 2020, the FAA granted an agreement to Leidos to develop and establish E-IDS. Leidos stated in a news release at the time that E-IDS becomes part of the FAA’s Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) modernization task, which incorporates many upgrades returning to 2008.
The FAA stated E-IDS will change the Information Display System 4 (IDS-4), Controller Equipment Information Display System (ACE-IDS), NAS Information Display System (NIDS), and En Route Information Display System (ERIDS).
IDS-4, among the systems being changed, operates on MS-DOS and “has actually remained in consistent usage considering that the early 1990s as an important informative resource/tool for air traffic controllers,” according to a 2018 news release provided by Systems Atlanta, a supplier that had an FAA agreement to support the system. As PCMag notes, IDS-4 appears to work on desktop PCs with 3.5-inch floppy disk drives.
Image from Department of Transportation report on the E-IDS upgrade.
Image from Department of Transportation report on the E-IDS upgrade.
Credit: United States Department of Transportation
Outdated tech”troublesome for controllers”
An April 2026 report by the Department of Transportation stated, “Controllers have actually utilized a system that is driven by floppies and an old operation system for crucial details such as weather condition, NOTAMs and airport status.” With E-IDS, those controllers will have “a single platform that pulls that information into one view. Rather of looking for information, they [will] have instant access to whatever they require to make split-second choices,” the report stated.
The obsolete systems were slammed in a September 2026 report by the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO). “Legacy screen systems depend on outdated innovation (e.g., floppies) and user interfaces from the 1980s, ineffective information company, and manual upgrade techniques,” the report stated. “The systems are troublesome for controllers to browse, obtain, and show info. Several varied screen systems produce ineffective activities required to sustain these systems.”
The GAO report stated these info display screen systems are utilized in Air Route Traffic Control Centers, Terminal Radar Approach Control centers, and control towers. The systems show textual and visual info, “such as flight technique charts, integrated with Notice to Airmen and weather condition info. This info is required to support controller-to-pilot flight operations,” the GAO stated.
This post was upgraded with more info and a graphic on floppies on Nov. 6, 2026 at 15:05 pm.
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