Floppy disks. The 1980s want them back but the United States’ aviation authority isn’t ready to let go yet. Instead, the FAA said this week it will phase out usage by 2028.
‘Wait’. ‘Hold on’, you say. Is the FAA still using a decades-old technology to track the roughly 5,200 planes flying over US domestic airspace at any given minute? In 2026?
Yes. And no. Look closely and the picture is less alarming and more interesting. The floppy disks themselves don’t track air traffic. Instead, they are part of four 80s-era computer systems that store ‘vital weather and other critical information’.
A US Department of Transportation changesheet said: “Controllers use a system – Information Display System 4 – driven by floppy disks and an antiquated operation system for critical information such as weather, NOTAMs, and airport status.” By 2028 all four will be folded into modern information display equipment; “Floppy disks from the 1980s: OUT,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declared on X.
Floppy disks from the 1980s: OUT 🤯 21st century tech: IN 🛫
The new Enterprise Information Display System, or E-IDS, is a streamlined way for air traffic controllers to get REAL-TIME weather, equipment, and traffic info, all in ONE place and on ONE display!
5 sites now. More than 400 @FAANews facilities by 2028. Safer skies for you.
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) November 5, 2026
US Department of Transportation to phase out floppy disk use by FAA
So that’s the story then?
Again, yes. And no.
Floppy disks stopped being widely used worldwide nearly three decades ago.
By 2011 major manufacturers, including Sony and Mitsubishi, had stopped. Amkette, an Indian company, carried the torch for two more years before it too gave up.
What killed the disk was the rapid evolution of data storage devices.
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From 1971 to 1988 the floppy disks were the pinnacle of that technology, rising to offer 1.44 MB in storage. If you’ve stopped reading for a second, I don’t blame you.
That is an absurdly small amount of data storage capacity… it really is. It’s smaller than that photograph you took this morning on your phone.
FAA_Alert.txt – Notepad_□×
The FAA says it will phase out floppy disks by 2028.
Click each question to open it:
Message from the Transportation Secretary×
“Floppy disks from the 1980s: OUT.”Sean Duffy, US Transportation Secretary, on X
OK
Copy Error×
×
Not enough space on disk.Copying a 1 TB phone would need 694,444 floppy disks. How many would yours need?
FloppyCalc — How many floppies is your phone?_□×
Select your phone’s storage:
64 GB128 GB256 GB512 GB1 TB
Results
44,444floppy disks
Stack height:147 metres tall
Total weight:896 kg
Stacking floppies… 6% of the 1 TB tower (2.3 kilometres)
88,889floppy disks
Stack height:293 metres tall
Total weight:1,792 kg (about 1.8 tonnes)
Stacking floppies… 13% of the 1 TB tower (2.3 kilometres)
177,778floppy disks
Stack height:587 metres tall
Total weight:3,584 kg (about 3.6 tonnes)
Stacking floppies… 26% of the 1 TB tower (2.3 kilometres)
355,556floppy disks
Stack height:1,173 metres tall (about 1.2 kilometres)
Total weight:7,168 kg (about 7.2 tonnes)
Stacking floppies… 51% of the 1 TB tower (2.3 kilometres)
694,444floppy disks
Stack height:2,292 metres tall (about 2.3 kilometres)
Total weight:14,000 kg (about 14 tonnes)
Stacking floppies… 100% of the 1 TB tower (2.3 kilometres)
1 floppy = 1.44 MB · 3.3 millimetres · about 20 grams
Source: US Department of Transportation; Sean Duffy on X; as reported by The Indian Express. Floppy figures calculated by Express InfoGenIE from the article’s numbers: 1.44 MB per floppy (1 GB = 1,000 MB), 3.3 millimetres thick, about 14 tonnes for 1 TB. kg = kilograms.
Created by Chandrashekar Srinivasan
But stay with me because that ’71 to ’88 jump underlines just how data storage tech exploded. The first 8-inch disk from 1971 could store 80 kilobytes. By 1977 that had jumped to 1.2 MB – 15 times more storage capacity in just six years.
Then in 1988 came the 1.44 MB floppy disk. And suddenly they were everywhere… the gold standard in data portability. But by the mid-90s CD-ROM drives had become a default in PCs; CDs, around since 1982, had been improved to store 650 MB each.
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That was about 450 disks – roughly the length of two cricket stumps. Then came DVDs, launching first in Japan at 4.7 GB per disc – around 3,260 floppies.
If there are dates that signalled the floppy disk’s fate, it’s 1998.
The iMac G3 by Apple – a company not afraid to pull the tech trigger – shipped with a CD-ROM drive and USB ports but no floppy drive.
And 1999, the pen drive.
Something we all remember and something we use even today. The first stored 8 MB and by 2013 it was carrying 1 TB (a terabyte is a million megabytes), then 2 TB, and then 4 TB.
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Today external hard drives are capable of carrying over 40 TB of data.
Storage Explosion Wizard_□×
80 KB
1.2 MB
1.44 MB
650 MB
4.7 GB
1 TB
4 TB
40 TB
Welcome to the Storage Explosion Wizard
This wizard will take you from the first floppy disk to today’s drives. Each circle’s area is drawn to scale, so earlier storage shrinks to its true size.
Click Next to continue.
< BackNext >
19718-inch floppy
80 KB
About one-eighteenth of a floppy
The first 8-inch disk could store 80 kilobytes.
< BackNext >
1977Floppy disk
1.2 MB
Less than one floppy 15× the previous
By 1977, a disk held 1.2 MB: 15 times more in six years.
< BackNext >
19883.5-inch floppy
1.44 MB
One floppy
The 1.44 MB floppy: everywhere, and the gold standard of data portability.
< BackNext >
Mid-1990sCD
650 MB
About 450 floppies 451× the previous
CD-ROM drives become a default in PCs. A CD holds 650 MB.
< BackNext >
NextDVD
4.7 GB
About 3,260 floppies 7× the previous
DVDs, launched first in Japan, hold 4.7 GB per disc.
< BackNext >
2013Pen drive
1 TB
About 694,440 floppies 213× the previous
The first pen drive, in 1999, held 8 MB. By 2013, pen drives carried 1 TB.
< BackNext >
ThenPen drive
4 TB
About 2.8 million floppies 4× the previous
Then 2 TB, and then 4 TB.
< BackNext >
TodayExternal hard drive
40 TB
About 27.8 million floppies 10× the previous
External hard drives today can carry over 40 TB.
The 1971 disk is now about 500 million times smaller. On this scale, it is far too small to see.
< BackFinish
Circle areas to scale · 1 floppy = 1.44 MB
Source: The Indian Express. Floppy equivalents calculated by Express InfoGenIE at 1.44 MB per floppy (1 GB = 1,000 MB). Images: CREDIT
Created by Chandrashekar Srinivasan
Then there’s the size aspect, which moved inversely to storage capacity.
Today a 1 TB microSD card is roughly 15×11×1 mm and weighs about 0.3 grams. Put that beside a floppy – which measures 90×94×3.3 mm and you’ll see the card is about 170 times smaller by volume but holds roughly 694,000 times more.
Stack that many floppies and you’d have a tower 2.3 km high weighing around 14 tonnes – or roughly the weight of a standard public bus in most Indian cities.
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So why did the FAA continue to use a significantly less capable data storage technology for decades? The answer – it isn’t nostalgia, it’s risk mitigation.
A system that has run reasonably well for decades – in multiple use-case scenarios – is always going to be favoured over a newer set-up that has to be tested and certified in as many situations. And that is problematic in an industry where mistakes cost lives.
C:Floppy_Holdouts_□×
AddressC:Floppy_Holdouts
NameDate
Disk_makers.txt2011 & 2013 US_Air_Force2019 Boeing_747-400.nav2020 Japan_government2024 Embroidery_machines.sysToday FAABy end-2028
Disk_makers.txt
2011 & 2013
Who stopped making them
By 2011, major manufacturers including Sony and Mitsubishi had stopped making floppy disks. Amkette, an Indian company, carried the torch for two more years before it too gave up.
US_Air_Force
2019
Nuclear missile silos
The US Air Force retired 8-inch diskettes tied to nuclear missile silos in 2019.
Boeing_747-400.nav
2020
In the cockpit
As late as 2020, updating a Boeing 747-400’s navigation database meant feeding eight floppies into a slot by the captain’s seat.
Japan_government
2024
A campaign to end them
Japan’s government only declared victory in its campaign to end floppy use in 2024, after scrapping more than 1,000 regulations.
FAA
By end-2028
The next to go
The FAA has promised to retire its own floppy disks by the end of 2028.
6 object(s)Click a file to open it
It’s now safe to turn off your computer.
FAA floppy disk phase-out: by the end of 2028
Source: The Indian Express
Created by Chandrashekar Srinivasan
And perhaps that makes it less strange then that governments worldwide moved slowly to end floppy disk use. Japan only did it in 2024 and the US Air Force stopped using 8-inch diskettes as part of systems controlling nuclear missile silos only in 2019.
In fact, till 2020 some of the software controlling a Boeing 747-400 also had to be updated and maintained by technicians carrying a bunch of floppy disks.
