QFE-Queen's Field Elevation?
Of course, we are all somewhat familiar with the Q-Codes. QNE, QNH, QFE, etc.
There is a Wikipedia writeup about the Q-code history dating back to 1909.
Q code - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
To quote...."The original Q codes were created, circa 1909, by the British government as a "list of abbreviations... prepared for the use of British ships and coast stations licensed by the Postmaster General".[citation needed] The Q codes facilitated communication between maritime radio operators speaking different languages, so they were soon adopted internationally."
A link is provided from Wikipedia to the 1909 issue of the Handbook for the Wireless Telegraph Operators. No mention is made of the Queen, whoever she was way back then.
Q-Signals 1909
So I was surprised to see a Boeing article referring to QFE as Queen's Field Elevation, QNE as Queen's Natural Elevation and QNH as Queen's Natural Height.
Aero 16 - Polar Route Operations
Honeywell also has the same terminology
http://www5.honeywell.com/aero/commo...S_Glossary.pdf
Could it be a mistake to have an association of the Queen with the Q-codes?
If the first letter was to have represented royalty then in 1909 it would have been K as the UK had a King in 1909.
So where did Q come from? Well in 1909 most if not all radio messaging was in Morse Code. To get the receiver's attention that what was being sent was special a standard easy to recognize letter in Morse would be used in a way that could not be confused. "Q: - dah dah dit dah - (or prosaically the rhythm of - 'Here comes the bride')
not followed by a "U" must mean that the three letters Q _ _ were the Q-code for something.
A more informative link is
Ralf D. Kloth DL4TA - List of Q-codes
Note this gives some of ICAO PANS ABC Doc 8400
Interestingly look at the real meaning of QNH and QFF
Hope that helps