The FAA is nearing completion of a hardware update that “virtualizes” its flight plan infrastructure. The new National Airspace Data Interchange Network (NADIN) will soon be fully integrated, helping process the more than 1.5 million messages that are part of the national traffic system each day. In the new system, both general aviation and airline pilots will not file their own flight plans but will file through a service provider or flight station, according to DailyTech.com.
The new system aims to reduce system computer crashes and the system’s overall vulnerability to hackers. Virtualization means that the system allows one server to provide services “to provision services across that server, in a much faster manner, without having to perform modernization upgrades or hardware installations,” according to FAA IT administrator Jim McNeill. Among other things, the system will handle flight plans, weather information and other messages coming into international airports from FAA control centers.
