Royal Air Force
Phonetic Alphabet
Updated: January 2008
In addition the the Two Letter or Letter Number Squadron code which was assigned to identify squadron aircraft. Each aircraft was generally assigned an individual aircraft letter in which to identify it both on the ground and while communicating by wireless radio or Morse code. With Morse it was easy for the wireless operator to simply tap out the aircraft letter. However, the problem generally came when the pilot contacted the ground stations for landing instructions etc. and it was here due to accents, poor reception and static that a single letter was often heard incorrectly. This was corrected with some success by the adoption of a phonetic alphabet where each letter of the alphabet was assigned a word which began with the letter.
The following list is very a basic, but represents those generally used. Squadrons of the RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF often used slightly different words.
A |
Apple / Able |
B |
Beer |
C |
Charlie |
D |
Dog |
E |
Easy / Edward |
F |
Fox / Freddie |
G |
George |
H |
Harry / How |
I |
Item / India |
J |
Jug / Jonny / Jig |
K |
King |
L |
Love / London |
M |
Mother / Mike |
N |
Nuts / Nan |
O |
Oboe / Orange |
P |
Peter / Popsie |
Q |
Queen / Quebec |
R |
Roger / Robert |
S |
Sugar |
T |
Tommy / Tare |
U |
Uncle |
V |
Victor |
W |
William |
X |
X-Ray |
Y |
York / Yorker |
Z |
Zebra |