The phonetic alphabet is one of the first things in aviation that a pilot or air traffic controller learns because it forms the foundation of all spoken air/ground communication.

Up until 1 March 1956 civil aviation in Australia used the British phonetic alphabet which had been extensively used during the war years. However, one of the early tasks of the new ICAO was to develop a more 'international' version of the phonetic alphabet, following complaints from some South American countries that some elements of the existing phonetic alphabet were difficult to pronounce for people of non-English speaking background.

In November 1951 ICAO proposed a new phonetic alphabet, but this also received criticism and further work was carried out to reduce the number of times 'ah' and 'o' were used.

From 1 March 1956 a new internationally-agreed phonetic alphabet was adopted. This new phonetic alphabet is used unchanged throughout the aviation world today.

The table below gives both pre- and post-1956 phonetic alphabets, plus the 1951 proposal:

Letter	till 1 March 1956	ICAO November 1951 proposal	post 1 March 1956
A	Able	Alpha	Alpha
B	Baker	Bravo	Bravo
C	Charlie	Coca	Charlie
D	Dog	Delta	Delta
E	Easy	Echo	Echo
F	Fox	Foxtrot	Foxtrot
G	George	Golf	Golf
H	How	Hotel	Hotel
I	Item	India	India
J	Jig	Juliett	Juliett
K	King	Kilo	Kilo ('keelo')
L	Love	Limo	Lima ('leema')
M	Mike	Metro	Mike
N	Nan	Nectar	November
O	Oboe	Oscar	Oscar
P	Peter	Papa	Papa
Q	Queen	Quebec	Quebec ('kweebeck')
R	Roger	Romeo	Romeo
S	Sugar	Sierra	Sierra
T	Tare	Tango	Tango
U	Uncle	Union	Uniform
V	Victor	Victor	Victor
W	William	Whiskey	Whiskey
X	X-ray	Extra	X-ray
Y	Yoke	Yankee	Yankee
Z	Zebra	Zulu	Zulu

This information was sourced from the DCA Flight Radio Operator's Manual, Fourth Edition, September 1955 and amendments and Flypast (Parnell & Boughton (AGPS) 1988).

Listen to the early phonetic alphabet in action in Essendon Tower in an excerpt from an interview of Air Traffic Controller Jack McCubbin by Norman Banks of radio station 3AW c.1950 (555 KB MP3 file).

Download a Movie Clip: A Position Report, 1950s-style, using the old phonetic alphabet (various size and format files).