Ack Emma?

I'm working my way through "On Glorious Wings", a collection of short stories
edited by Stephen Coonts.

In at least a couple of the stories from the first part of the 20th century,
there are references to airplane mechanics as "Ack Emma". I think the stories
where these references appeared had British authors, so it might be a Brit thing.

Why are/were airplane mechanics called Ack Emma?

Thanks,

Dave

Ack = A
Emma = M
AM = Air Mechanic.... it's a Brit thing
Jim

"Dave Butler" wrote in message
news:1147730057.758965@sj-nntpcache-3...
I'm working my way through "On Glorious Wings", a collection of short
stories
edited by Stephen Coonts.

In at least a couple of the stories from the first part of the 20th
century,
there are references to airplane mechanics as "Ack Emma". I think the
stories
where these references appeared had British authors, so it might be a Brit
thing.

Why are/were airplane mechanics called Ack Emma?

Thanks,

Dave

"Jim Burns" wrote in message
...
Ack = A
Emma = M
AM = Air Mechanic.... it's a Brit thing
Jim

Man, they sure can butcher the language, huh?

U Betcha!
Difference between English and British.
Looks like it can also mean AM (morning) and pip emma for PM (evening).
Jim

In article ,
"Jim Burns" wrote:

Ack = A
Emma = M
AM = Air Mechanic.... it's a Brit thing

or
aircraft = A/C = Ack
maintainer = MA = Emma

For you blokes having trouble with the Queen's English, try this...

http://www.hps.com/~tpg/ukdict/

I used to make many trips to the UK for business. Lots of funny language
stories.

Cheers,
Ross
KSWI

Jim Burns wrote:

U Betcha!
Difference between English and British.
Looks like it can also mean AM (morning) and pip emma for PM (evening).
Jim

On Tue, 16 May 2006 11:21:37 -0500, Ross Richardson
wrote:

For you blokes having trouble with the Queen's English, try this...

http://www.hps.com/~tpg/ukdict/

We have enough of a problem with American English:-))

For instance many words are both singular and plural. IE you do not
add an S to make them plural.

For example none of the following have an S added for plural.

Aircraft
Revolutions per minute (RPM it is not RPMs)
Deer
Bear
Moose

There are many more.

Probably the most misused is title and entitle. Entitle has been
misused so often that Michigan Tech added "entitle" to it's list of
words that should be banned from the language.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

I used to make many trips to the UK for business. Lots of funny language
stories.

Cheers,
Ross
KSWI

Jim Burns wrote:

U Betcha!
Difference between English and British.
Looks like it can also mean AM (morning) and pip emma for PM (evening).
Jim

Man, they sure can butcher the language, huh?

Not just the Brits. Try this to see how you sound to them:

http://www.manythings.org/slang/

Dan (Canadian, or "Canayjun")