The fragile state of the U.S. air traffic control system was easy to see during the recent outages in Newark. But it will be a lot harder to make up for decades of underinvestment and other mistakes.

"No more floppy disks or paper strips." It's a goal that has eluded all of Rocheleau's predecessors. Walking into many of the nation's air traffic control towers is like stepping back in time.

Navigation data aboard Boeing 747-436 airliners was updated via 3.5" floppy disks and a vacancy for a Windows 3.11 boffin at Deutsche Bahn appeared on a German job site in 2024.

Paper strips, floppy disks, and 1940’s tech: Let’s modernize our air traffic system by Jackson Shedelbower, opinion contributor - 05/07/25 8:30 AM ET.

"No more floppy disks or paper strips." It's a goal that has eluded all of Rocheleau's predecessors. Walking into many of the nation's air traffic control towers is like stepping back in time.

"No more floppy disks or paper strips." It's a goal that has eluded all of Rocheleau's predecessors. Walking into many of the nation's air traffic control towers is like stepping back in time.

"No more floppy disks or paper strips." It's a goal that has eluded all of Rocheleau's predecessors. Walking into many of the nation's air traffic control towers is like stepping back in time.

"No more floppy disks or paper strips." It's a goal that has eluded all of Rocheleau's predecessors. Walking into many of the nation's air traffic control towers is like stepping back in time.