Tom Persky, founder of Floppydisk.com, has published a book in which he reveals that in the twenty-first century, humanity is still dependent on outdated floppy disks. Persky owns a shop that sells thousands of floppy disks a year, and the demand for floppy disks has never waned. Moreover, not only enthusiasts and retro-technologists, but floppy disks are in high demand in a very important sector: commercial aviation.Planes, trains and bulky equipment need floppy disks
As Persky explains, in the 1980s engineers installed the best and most modern equipment of the time, while designing new airplanes and other devices that would last for decades. However, this has become an obstacle. Because replacing a module in a personal computer is easy and inexpensive, but overhauling the “guts” of a huge airplane is the opposite. As a result, although digital technology is advancing day by day, many airplanes, trains, machinery and other bulky equipment still have to use the floppy disk, which is considered long dead.
Sure, development is possible, but it’s costly and far from always beneficial. For example, according to Aeroweb, there were 7,690 aircraft flying commercially in the US in 2020. It’s often routine, low margin, and therefore no investment in new technology will work here. Even if floppy disks do their job, they are short-lived due to their flawed technology and need to be replaced regularly.
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