In 1932, ICAN – the International Commission for Air Navigation and precursor to ICAO – introduced the first attempt at an international spelling alphabet for civil aviation. But as global air travel grew, the need for a level of standardisation became increasingly paramount. Both the British Army and Royal Navy developed their own spelling alphabets to combat the problem, with the Navy preferring a mix of Apples, Butter and Pudding over Ack, Beer and Pip for the Tommies in the trenches.Īs civil aviation emerged in the early 1920s, an amalgamated version of these alphabets was rolled out by the UK Government for use by pilots and ‘Civil Aviation Traffic Officers’, including Zebra, Monkey, Uncle and George. During the First World War, the combination of battlefield conditions and embryonic radio technology meant messages could too easily be garbled and misunderstood. The need for a spelling alphabet first emerged with the rise of radio telephony in the early 20 th Century. The phonetic alphabet we use today – which is officially called the ICAO Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, or NATO phonetic alphabet – was developed after the Second World War to try and bring about a level of standardisation, but it wasn’t the first. In fact, every air traffic control interaction is based on a standardised set of phrases designed to keep messages unambiguous – especially for anyone for whom English is not their first language – and the phonetic spelling alphabet is an important part of that. Letters like M and N and F and S can sound very similar, especially over the radio, so the phonetic spelling alphabet serves a vital purpose helping ensure the messages that pass between air traffic controllers and pilots (as well as a host of other professions) are as clear as possible. The use of the phonetic spelling alphabet – Alfa, Bravo, Charlie etc – is a common sound in air traffic control towers and centres around the world, but where did it come from and why does everyone use the same one?
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