# Why so many French words in aircraft nomenclature? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 24, 2015, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-french-words-in-aircraft-nomenclature/713557 "2015-02-24T23:53:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2016, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-french-words-in-aircraft-nomenclature/713557/21 "2016-08-09T18:10:27Z")
> [@Brian-from-fl](#): > > The Wrights sued everyone they could; only Glenn Curtis stood up to them. That pushed aviation development out of the US, and the French were responsible for the first ten years or so of aviation development. Hence the proliferation of French words. > > The US didn’t regain anything resembling a lead in aviation until well into WWII. Strange as it seems now, America was not that impressed nor enamored by the Wrights’ invention. It was seen as a mere curiosity or sideshow contraption, something that only P.T. Barnum would use. France, and Europe in general, on the other hand went crazy over the Wrights’ airplane early on and embraced the new technology as the way of the future. ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e47774/32.png) [@quiltguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-french-words-in-aircraft-nomenclature/713557/22 "2016-08-10T11:53:32Z")
Can _mayday_ sneak in here? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-french-words-in-aircraft-nomenclature/713557/23 "2016-08-10T12:04:36Z")
Depends, do hovercraft count as aircraft? And, are eels included? ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-french-words-in-aircraft-nomenclature/713557/24 "2016-08-10T12:15:24Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > … French is still one of the most spoken languages in the world. [It ranks 10th](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers), behind Mandarin, English, Arabic, Spanish, Hindi, Russian, Bengali, Portugese and Malay. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-french-words-in-aircraft-nomenclature/713557/25 "2016-08-10T13:13:16Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > [It ranks 10th](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers), behind Mandarin, English, Arabic, Spanish, Hindi, Russian, Bengali, Portugese and Malay. So it’s in the Top 10. 🆒 Regarding US adoption of the aeroplane, the military didn’t get it’s first airplanes until the establishment of the US Aeronautical Division, US Signal Corps, on 1 August 1907. In the fine tradition of US military manning decisions, they sent two officers specifically to get trained by Orville Wright in the operation of the aircraft, and then reassigned both of them to other duties before giving a third (untrained) officer the responsibility of figuring out how the plane worked after Orville had returned home. To further complicate issues, there were obviously few airports at the time, so the flying operations could only be done whenever the Cavalry troops would let them use the field. There was a great second-hand story I heard from a WWII vet (which he claimed to have gotten from an old Signal Corps pilot when he was young) about an early Army pilot having an engine failure and having to ditch the plane during a Cavalry practice, nearly leading to him getting attacked by a very pissed off cavalry captain by the name of Doug MacArthur. Besides aviation words of French or Romance origin, I often amuse myself trying to figure out the origin of other aviation terms that seem orphaned from their roots, like why aircraft are always parked on a Ramp (even when the ramp is decidedly not inclined). In a previous SDMB thread on that topic, the best guess anyone came up with was that it originated with seaplanes, which would land on the water and be dragged out via a boat ramp so they could be served on dry land like any other smallish water craft. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-french-words-in-aircraft-nomenclature/713557.md?page=1)