FAA brings air traffic control’s digital future to Sioux Falls

For decades, some of the technology behind America’s air traffic control system has changed little even as the skies above it have become increasingly busy.

Controllers have relied on paper flight strips to track aircraft, aging radar and radio systems to monitor and communicate with pilots and infrastructure that in some cases dates back decades.

Now, that system is undergoing one of the largest technological overhauls in the history of the nation’s airspace.

Sioux Falls Regional Airport is getting an early, tangible piece of that transformation.