I seem to recall that the Navy claimed the letter N and something about the use of W for radio. I'll research and post it if someone else doesn't do it first.

Found this at http://www.skygod.com/asstd/abc.html. With a name like that it naturally has to be the website of the Airline Pilots Association.

"Some special interest groups successfully lobbied the government to obtain their own special letters. The Navy saved all the new 'N' codes. Naval aviators learn to fly at NPA in Pensacola, Florida and then dream of going to "Top Gun" in Miramar, California (NKX). The Federal Communications Committee set aside the 'W' and 'K' codes for radio stations east and west of the Mississippi respectively. 'Q' was designated for international telecommunications. 'Z' was reserved for special uses. The Canadians made off with all the remaining 'Y codes which helps explain YUL for Montreal, YYC for Calgary, etc. (The start of the the song YYZ by the band Rush is the Morse code for the letters Y Y Z. Rush is from Toronto.) One of the special uses for 'Z' is identifying locations in cyberspace. What am I talking about? Well, an example is ZCX the computer address of the FAA's air traffic control headquarters central flow control facility. ZCX is not an airport but a command center just outside Washington D.C., that controls the airline traffic into major terminals."

Whoa, that's a pretty large extra effort IMO.

Since I work with the FAA on a daily basis, let me clear up a couple of errors in the previous explanations:

Z is used to denote an Air Route Traffic Control Center. These centers control plane 'enroute'. That is once they leave an air terminal. Z is the first letter followed by two letter approximating the location. ZAN is the ARTCC for Anchorage, ZOA is Oakland, etc.

N and W are used for airports. I see some confusion above with radio call signs which are, of course, completely different. Some examples from Alaska:

WNA = Napakiak
WRG = Wrangell
NLG = Nelson Lagoon
NIB = Nikolai

and I invite any of you to come up here and visit any of these lovely airports...:p

Glenn

And outside the US, who could forget NCL?

For the individual poster, yes, but in theory, if vB supports text replacement, it could be easy to implement on the server.

Hurray for Greasemonkey
 

I've been a Firefox fan for quite a while, but have not found a use for Greasemonkey ... that is, until now. Wow! That airport script is fantastic. I'll leave the TLA memorization to those with too much time on their hands! ;)

Thanks!!!!

(But I still think the rollover is a good idea as it enables newcomers to participate more easily.)

Agree on Greasemonkey plugin
 

This thing is awesome. Many thanks to the person who pointed it out and many, many thanks to the person who created it. Inspired genius! ^^^^