"Everyone knows we have to do it." The FAA shockingly still uses Windows 95 and floppy disks for air traffic control, but now that's changing

30 years after the initial release of the operating system, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) — the United States (US) government agency responsible for overseeing civil aviation throughout the country — has announced its plans to phase Windows 95 out of air traffic control systems.

The news came in a recent FAA budget hearing in which the agency's head Chris Rocheleau explained the intent to fully overhaul the infrastructure, moving to a modern operating system while also moving on from floppy disks and other archaic pieces of tech (thanks, NPR).

"The whole idea is to replace the system. No more floppy disks or paper strips," he said. For the unaware, the latter refers to strips of cover stock that have various pieces of important flight information written or printed on them, such as the type of plane that's being used for a flight.

Notably, this plan comes two years after a 2023 FAA evaluation found that over one-third of the US' air traffic control systems are unsupportable in the long-term, with some already failing.

Microsoft Windows is at the heart of much technological infrastructure in both the US and the world at large, with the operating system used for everything from transportation and medical machinery to public ATM machines and government systems. However, a significant portion of these still utilize older versions of the software due to the enormous cost and difficulty of integrating newer releases and the hardware it requires.

And yet, folks like US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy say it still needs to be done. "This is the most important infrastructure project that we've had in this country for decades," he argued in a recent press conference. "Everyone agrees, this is non-partisan. Everyone knows we have to do it."

Duffy has plans for a brand new air traffic control system, and with the Trump administration, intends to see it realized and implemented in the next four years. The cost of such a revamp is expected to be tens of billions of dollars; former FAA administrator Michael Huerta has stated that the largest barrier to such a proposal is funding.

"At its core, it's a money problem," he said in an interview. "The FAA has been asked to do more with less, essentially." One big reason finances are such an issue is said to be because the FAA has to spend huge portions of its budget just to maintain its aging equipment it hasn't been able to sunset.

Notably, the FAA wants to construct six new air traffic control facilities, though its plans for the 21 existing facilities that continuously oversee flight traffic haven't been stated. Huerta, though, believes scaling things down while simultaneously taking advantage of more advanced and modern tech solutions is key.

"I think that consolidation is something that needs to be part of this plan," he asserted. "Everyone who is familiar with the air traffic system recognizes that we probably don't need the number of facilities which were built at a time when technology was very different, that we can get by with a smaller number."

Attempts to condense the air traffic control network may be met with political opposition, however, as it's expected members of Congress will contest plans to decommission facilities in their districts.

Indeed, for both financial and political reasons, the road ahead for the FAA's plan looks to be a bumpy one. But given how deeply systems like Windows are integrated into our infrastructure, it's probably important to make sure we put in the money and effort required to make upgrades that will ensure it stays up and running.

Whether that happens or organizations continue to simply pump funds into maintenance, though, one thing is certain: Microsoft stands to continue profiting immensely.