Definition
A remote computer terminal in an air traffic control facility used to receive, display, and transmit flight plan data and related messages between controllers and the national flight data processing system. The FDIOR allows facilities without direct host-computer access to enter, amend, and retrieve flight strip information electronically.
Plain English
A small computer station at an ATC facility that lets controllers send and receive flight plan information from the wider air traffic system, even when they aren't directly connected to the main computer.
Context Anchor
Seen in FAA acronym lists and in material related to air traffic control automation and flight data handling.
Derivation
The name describes the function: 'flight data' (information about a flight, such as its route and altitude), 'input/output' (data going in and coming back out), and 'remote' (a terminal located away from the main host computer). Knowing the parts makes the role of the device self-explanatory.
Why Pilots Care
Pilots don't operate an FDIOR, but it's part of the chain that gets a filed flight plan into the controller's hands. When a flight plan seems to have 'disappeared' or shows up incorrectly at a tower, an FDIOR or similar terminal is often where the data was last entered or amended.
Intuition Check
Do not read “remote” here as a handheld controller. In this term, it means a separate terminal connected to a larger flight data system.
Example Sentence 1
The controller used the FDIOR to pull up the inbound aircraft's flight plan and pass the strip to the next position.
Example Sentence 2
During post-flight review the crew downloaded engine parameters through the FDIOR port.