Airplanes are a luxury for most people to own, let alone toy with — given all the national security regulations. This year’s DEF CON, however, revealed a fascinating finding leaving many, including myself, surprised.

July this year, British Airways announced it would retire its BOEING-747 fleet “due to the downturn in travel caused by the COVID-19 global pandemic,” as stated by their spokesperson.

This enabled security researchers, Ken Munro and Alex Lomas of Pen Test Partners to get their hands on a BOEING-747, and show us what goes on behind the scenes in the aircraft.

In their DEF CON presentation, the researchers gave a thorough walkthrough of the aircraft and pointed out something that Gareth Corfield of The Register wasted no time in reporting on.

They revealed a critical component of the BOEING-747 jet, the “navigation database loader” which uses 3.5" floppy disks for updates, even in 2020!

The “diskette stowage” compartment next to the component has a number of floppies as the video (provided at the bottom) gives a quick glimpse of.

To update the navigation database, Lomas explained, an engineer would have to visit the aircraft every 28 days, with a set of floppy disks.

#aviation #aerospace #security