These should be USB sticks, but otherwise this is preferable to something like wifi.
You do not want to stop requiring physical access to avionics for updates and reprogramming.
The fewer surfaces for entry into the avionics systems the better and if that means an engineer schlepping a database update on a thumb drive to the cockpit that’s what you want.
I spent the better part of a decade on avionics, and while this as a headline sounds bad it’s one of the few things Boeing shouldn’t be mocked for right now.
I don’t think the article argues against physical access though.
It doesn’t, that’s just a very common reaction to these types of articles. I recall having some very intense discussions around stuff like iPads in cockpits. I’m on the “not a fan” side, but I’m also not making avionics software anymore either.
I know that the glass cockpits (G1000s) in General Aviation aircraft use SD cards for the same purpose. Less dated, but overall pretty much the same thing
