Private Pilot Flight Training and Instruction Flight Training Article Library | Back To 4VFR.COM Phonetic Alphabet and Time Zones In 1914 the U.S. Army adopted a phonetic alphabet but Spanish pronunciations created problem In 1927 a worldwide agreement of words and spelling was reached but some words were uncommon. In 1952 an International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) alphabet was made using Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog but it too had problems. The current alphabet was adopted in 1956. Related to this 1996 version are the names of the time zones around the globe. Alpha time zone begins 7.5 degrees west of Greenwich, England and extends to 22.5 longitude westward. Each successive 15-degrees of longitude is given a alphabetic name. Eastern time is named Echo and Pacific time s Hotel. Even during daylight savings time the names remain the same. All aviation time is referenced to Zulu. Zulu time is relative to the sun, the exact same moment all over the world is recorded by clock time in Greenwich. Why Greenwich? In 1735 John Harrison, a carpenter designed an accurate chronometer. By knowing just when noon occurred in Greenwich with the chronometer, a navigator could use an astronomical table to determine his longitude. Written by Gene Whitt Flight Training Article Library | Back To 4VFR.COM