The Federal Aviation Administration is replacing several aging air traffic control information systems—including technology associated with floppy disks and outdated operating systems—with a new platform called the Enterprise Information Display System (E-IDS). The upgrade is intended to give controllers a single view of weather, NOTAMs, airport status, flight maps, and other operational information.
“Good news for America: floppy disks are here, 21st century technology is here,” US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in a video he posted. In the video, a newscaster describing the FAA’s outdated technology said, “FAA systems essentially run on Windows 95.”
Like other Trump appointees, Duffy credited President Trump with the modernization effort. However, the plan was guided through to completion by officials from both the Biden and Trump administrations.
“The world’s greatest nation deserves a state-of-the-art air traffic control system, and under President Trump we are delivering just that,” Duffy said.
FAA’s E-IDS replaces multiple legacy systems
In August 2020, the FAA entered into an agreement with Leidos to design and develop E-IDS, according to a Leidos press release. At the time, E-IDS was part of the FAA’s Next Generation Air Transportation System, or NextGen, a modernization project that included numerous upgrades beginning in 2008.
According to the FAA, E-IDS replaces the Information Display System-4 (IDS-4), Controller Equipment Information Display System (ACE-IDS), NAS Information Display System (NIDS), and Flight Route Information Display System (ERIDS).
One of the systems being replaced, IDS-4, runs on MS-DOS. A 2018 press release from Systems Atlanta, a vendor that held an FAA support contract for the system, said IDS-4 had “continued to be used as a critical information resource/tool for air traffic controllers since the early 1990s.” As PCMag noted, IDS-4 appears to run on desktop PCs equipped with 3.5-inch floppy disk drives.
Outdated technology is “a hassle for controllers”
An April 2026 report from the Department of Transportation said air traffic controllers had been using “floppy disk-based systems and outdated operating systems” to manage critical information, including weather, NOTAMs, and airport status.
With E-IDS, the department said controllers “have a single platform that brings data into one view; instead of searching for information; [will] gain instant access to everything you need to make instant decisions.”
The legacy systems were also criticized in a September 2026 report from the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO).
“Legacy display systems rely on outdated technology and interfaces from the 1980s (such as floppy disks), inefficient data organization, and manual update methods,” the report stated. “This system makes finding, retrieving, and displaying information cumbersome for air traffic controllers. Multiple and disparate display systems create inefficiencies required to maintain these systems.”
According to the GAO report, the information display systems are used in air route traffic control centers, terminal radar approach control facilities, and control towers. The systems display textual and graphical information, including flight approach maps, airman notifications, and weather information needed to support flight operations between controllers and pilots.
This article was updated on November 6, 2026, at 3:05 PM with more information and graphics about floppy disks.
Source: arstechnica.com