Many users haven't touched them in years. The latest generations already confuse their icons with vending machines, and then there are those who try to store gigantic things in them. Floppy disks are no longer relevant in the modern computing world, but they still have very specific applications, and believe it or not, they are vital to keeping certain aircraft in the air: Yes, the Boeing 747-400 receives critical software updates via floppy disks.
British Airways Bids Farewell to the Boeing 747-400
In mid-July, British Airways confirmed that its fleet of 31 Boeing 747-400 aircraft will not return to the skies. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought airlines to the brink, and with half a century of service on its wings (Editor's note: The -400 variant began flying in 1989), the virus only accelerated the inevitable.
But the retirement of these aircraft opened up some very interesting possibilities, especially in terms of InfoSec. The people at Pen Test Partners were able to board a Boeing 747-400 and shared a full tour at the recent DEF CON 28. The video runs for 25 minutes (ten of which show the interior of the plane), but one of its frames began circulating around the world in record time (07:49):
Yes, that is a floppy disk drive. There are no 'emulators' or other tricks here. The representatives of Pen Test Partners explain that the drive is the loading point for the navigation database, which must be updated every 28 days. There are no online transfers here: An engineer boards the plane and loads the latest available data manually. The practice is not exclusive to the 747-400: The classic Boeing 737 receives updates the same way. Aviation Today explored the drawbacks behind the use of floppy disks in 2014, citing the size of the updates and the loss of integrity in the disks (CRC error, etc.).
In short, floppy disks have left our digital lives, but they are still quite active in industrial environments and 'legacy' systems. We should also not forget the famous eight-inch disks used by the United States Air Force in nuclear silos, which were retired last year. With all this in mind, it is very likely that floppy disks will never completely disappear.
Source: Gizmodo
