Elon Musk — the face of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and now the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — is reportedly getting ready to lend a hand to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to help improve its basic technological functions.
Speaking exclusively to FOX Business’ Grady Trimble on Thursday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed he’s enlisting Musk and SpaceX engineers to take a deeper look at the FAA’s alleged “outdated” internet and digital program infrastructures.
“I want to make sure that we have some of the brightest minds in the country come and look at the systems that the FAA uses to make sure we upgrade, and upgrade to the right technology and upgrade at the right speed,” Duffy said.
“So SpaceX, of course, we’re going to have SpaceX engineers come and look at the FAA,” he added. “They’re, again, launching rockets into space, catching rockets. A Tesla has been launched into space… I want to hear their opinions, but it’s not just SpaceX.”
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The move to help modernize aviation and air traffic control comes in light of the deadly Jan. 29 crash between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines flight landing at Reagan airport in Washington, D.C., which served as “a heartbreaking wake-up call that improvements must be made,” Duffy previously wrote on X.
Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau said in a Wednesday email to employees that the DOGE team would be visiting more FAA facilities — including FAA headquarters — after Monday stops at the Air Traffic Control Command Center and Potomac TRACON in Warrenton, Virginia, Reuters reported.
Following a visit to an FAA facility himself, Duffy expressed his surprise upon learning that the FAA uses a seemingly “unreliable” internet server and even runs some programs on floppy disks.
“It doesn’t work. It’ll go out, so their screens might go down, or their communications might go down. So we have to upgrade our systems so they can actually use the internet that everyone uses,” Duffy said.
“The FAA is using floppy disks to manage some of their systems. And again, some Gen Zers might not know what a floppy disk is, but if you’re old enough, this is ancient technology,” he told Trimble. “It costs $0.90 of every dollar to maintain these really old systems.”
Despite staffing concerns, the Trump administration recently moved to lay off hundreds of FAA employees in an effort to curtail federal spending. Some critics fear this could exacerbate the recent slew of commercial airplane incidents, but Duffy puts the onus on the lack of technological advancements.
He also added that there were allegedly more aviation incidents in January 2024 than January 2025, but “heightened attention” after the D.C. tragedy has garnered “more media attention.”
“For Democrats to say we’re affecting safety by letting 0.8% of the FAA go… who are probationary employees were let go, and you want to say that’s going to impact air traffic in the country and try to blame that on some of the incidents that have taken place over the course of the last four weeks, that’s garbage. That’s politics,” Duffy argued.
“And again, if you want to point the fingers at the systems that are being used right now, these are the systems that were developed over the last four years from this administration.”
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Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
