To create the alphabet, the International Civil Aviation Organization assigned codewords acrophonically to the letters of the English alphabet, so that letters and numbers would have distinct names that would be most easily understood by those who exchange v Using this format, Bravo cannot be confused with 'Delta', which takes the place of the letter 'D', in the arrangement. The ICAO sent a recording of the new Defined by various international conventions on radio, including: He included lists from the US, Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, British Army, AT&T, Western Union, RCA Communications, and that of the International Telecommunications Convention. The Aviation Alphabet is another name for the ICAO spelling alphabet that is specifically used at commercial airports in the US and abroad. The International Civil Aviation Organization created the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, tied to the English alphabet, to ensure that letters are properly pronounced and understood by air traffic controllers and pilots around the world, despite what languages are spoken. Using "Delta" instead of "D" avoids confusion between "DH98" and "BH98" or "TH98". Other words were tested and the most intelligible ones were compared with the more desirable lists. The International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, commonly known as the NATO phonetic alphabet or the ICAO phonetic alphabet, is the most widely used radiotelephone spelling alphabet.

For example, The pronunciation of the code words varies according to the language habits of the speaker. De telles ambiguïtés risquent en effet de se produire en raison des parasites et des interférences auxquels les transmission… Un alphabet radio est un code utilisé en radiotéléphonie, ce qui consiste à représenter chaque lettre de l'alphabet par un mot entier, choisi de manière acrophonique (ayant pour initiale la lettre représentée).

For example, it is often used in the retail industry where customer or site details are spoken by telephone (to authorize a credit agreement or confirm stock codes), although ad-hoc coding is often used in that instance.

The alphabet is used by pilots and air traffic control when they are talking over the radio to ensure that voice communications are understandable. For the 1959 – present phonetics, the underlined syllable of each letter word should be emphasized, and each syllable of the code words for the figures (1969 – present) should be equally emphasized. One of the firmest conclusions reached was that it was not practical to make an isolated change to clear confusion between one pair of letters. It is a great way to make sure you are understood (since a B, P, T, and V sound hauntingly similar when spoken), and an appropriate introduction to Aviation Lingo. The NATO phonetic … In addition to the traditional military usage, civilian industry uses the alphabet to avoid similar problems in the transmission of messages by telephone systems. Letters are associated with a particular word so, when broadcast over radio, the letters are clearly interpreted by the recipient (be they the pilot or Air Traffic Control). Nor can 'Mike' (the latter 'M') be confused with 'Papa' (the letter 'P').
The qualifying feature was the likelihood of a code word being understood in the context of others.

A 1955 NATO memo stated that:

It was defined in one or more of CCBP-1: During World War II, the U.S. military conducted significant research into spelling alphabets. To change one word involves reconsideration of the whole alphabet to ensure that the change proposed to clear one confusion does not itself introduce others.After the phonetic alphabet was developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (The same alphabetic code words are used by all agencies, but each agency chooses one of two different sets of numeric code words.

Pilot Aviation Codes (A-to-Z) The aviation code phonetic alphabet languade. The U.S. adopted the To enable the U.S., UK, and Australian armed forces to communicate during joint operations, in 1943 the CCB (Combined Communications Board; the combination of US and UK upper military commands) modified the U.S. military's Joint Army/Navy alphabet for use by all three nations, with the result being called the US-UK spelling alphabet.