The old phonetic alphabet

[Random Electron]

Can anybody help with a bit of history: Who knows the old phonetic alphbet?

A = Able
B = Baker

Thats all I know. Anyone know the rest?
Thanks in advance.

[Fil]

y = yoke
p = peter

I think.

[DX Wombat]

C Charlie
D dog
G George
M Mother.
I'll try to fing the rest I'm sure I have it somewhere

[spekesoftly]

Able Baker Charlie Dog Easy Fox George How Item Jig King Love Mike Nan Oboe Peter Queen Roger Sugar Tare Uncle Victor William X-Ray Yoke Zebra.

This gives a few other variations!

[InFinRetirement]

Very good s/s. So when did it change over? I'll give you a clue it was midnight!

Here's another clue; It was 19.....

[Loki]

Well, it must have been postwar (WW2). How about 1949, which was when ICAO came about?

I`m old enough to remember Trident pilots reading back the QNH as the "Nan How"

[InFinRetirement]

Wery wery close Loki.

(Why aren't you coming to the Bash?)

IFR

[GotTheTshirt]

What about the other one
A for orses
B for mutton
C for miles
F for fescent
L for leather
O for the wings
Q for ages
R for mo
T for two

Im sure someone will fill the gaps:

[Four Seven Eleven]

Tshirt

Some additions and variations:

D for Kate
G for police
I for an eye
K for answers
M for zeema
N for end
P for relief
Q for a bus
S for Williams
U for me
V for la france
Y for you no listen?
Z for breeze

[Sultan Ismail]

InFin

I went on a Signals course to Roman Way Camp, Colchester about 1955, at that time the alphabet was still Able Baker Charlie Dog.

The Comet which crashed was Yoke Peter, so the change must have been 1955/1956. Certainly it had changed by 1969 when I started my PPL.


Sultan Ismail

[sabredog]

ICAO and the ITU iintroduced the new alphabet in 1956.
sabredog.

[astir 8]

Wasn't there a WWI set of radio/telephone military letters starting A = Ack?

hence Ack Ack = anti aircraft guns
Ack Emma = am
pip emma = pm

and T was Tock?????

[treadigraph]

Astir

B = Beer - now, how did I remember that!

Think that was the British Army - they changed to the American system, Able, Baker, etc, when our illustrious allies finally turned up to WWII (just kidding ) to avoid any confusion!

Cheers

Treadders

[seacue]

The "new" alphabet was used by the US Air Force by 1952. Our lab had a French/American fellow who liked to illustrate the poor choice of 'hotel' for H by pronouncing it a la French - 'otel.

[InFinRetirement]

One just about right.

It actually changed in June 1952 - adopted by ICAO - and the military, which I was active in then. NATO followed in 1956.

[Loki]

IFR

Can`t come to the bash, because I need to be up at Oh, Christ Thirty the next morning so I can shout at some pilots. Not too clever with a hangover!

[Sir George Cayley]

C for tHighlanders (tricky one that)
Q for Chips

Sir George Cayley

The air is a navigable ocean that laps at everyones door

[Cornish Jack]

Caused great problems for many of us 'come the changeover'. The change to FOXTROT produced a brain-wracked 'Mike Oboe Victor Sylvester Foxtrot'. !!
One of my mates was, for a while, operating the only serviceable Beverley from Aden around the Gulf and generated his own 'special' callsign - Mike Oscar Blunderbuss Xmas Gurgle... MOBXG - worked well, but only with the 'outstations - Riyan, Salalah, Masirah and Sharjah. Things were slightly more relaxed in those days - as long as IRIS wasn't around!!

[JW411]

My flying career was just starting when Peter King became Papa Kilo.

I have it in my mind that M was Metro for a short while before becoming Mike again. Does anyone else remember that?

[Scion]

Cornish Jack,

At Bankstown, Sydney, a British Klemm Eagle, VH-UTI can occasionally be heard using the callsign, Urinary Tract Infection, and indeed the colour of this aeroplane is yellow!