![]() Zulu comes from the US military, which assigns global time zones with letter codes. UTC time highlighted on the A320 instrument panel How to sound like an aviator There are moves to head to an even better standard that would eliminate the need for adding leap seconds, but no decision has been reached on that as yet. If your curiosity is piqued, head here for more specifics on all that. That solar time is constant, but the earth’s rotation is imperfect, hence the need for the leap seconds. That’s in order to keep the time within close range of what’s known as UT1 – a variant of universal time based upon the true solar time. As the earth’s rotation slows ever so slightly, leap seconds need to be added here and there. However, in the case of UTC the time is fine-tuned based upon a much more accurate atomic clock. UTC is essentially based upon the timing of solar noon at 0 degrees longitude (the so-called “prime meridian”), similar to GMT. To solve that problem, a commission at the UN got together and in the 1960s adopted UTC as its more precise successor. That’s partly because the earth’s rotation can vary slightly, and GMT doesn’t account for that variation. However, GMT is not precise enough to be used in modern technical pursuits such as aviation. The Royal Air Force of Great Britain has its home base on Zulu time, but it’s not always GMT at Brize Norton (where this A400M was snapped.) The applications for aviation evolved from there. That’s a fairly complicated science that deserves its own article, but suffice to say it made GMT a central reference point for oceangoing vessels worldwide, and that also meant that GMT as a kind of “standard” time took hold throughout the world as well. They figured out that by carrying a chronometer set to GMT (which was considered to be at 0 degrees longitude), ships would be able to calculate their own longitude based on the time where they were. The original of GMT dates back to Britain’s development as a seafaring nation and a great maritime power. However, this is where it all originated and UTC and Zulu both refer to the same exact time. It may not be called Greenwich Mean Time anymore, and in fact even GMT is sometimes changed to General mean time to make it less tied to one city. ![]() As airliners head off on long journeys, it’s essential for everyone to be on the same page when it comes to time zones. It also looks and reads better than CUT or TUC. So what’s with the UTC? It turns out it represents a compromise between the two. ![]() But UTC en français is “temps universel coordonné”, or TUC. The UN, which administers this sort of standardization, does still consider French its official language. Perhaps that stands for the French then? A clever guess. Coordinated Universal Time should equal CUT. You may have noticed that the letters UTC are out of order. But first, we need to take a look at that acronym. So what is this Zulu time? Is it always the same time? Why does it exist and how did it come to be? And why is Greenwich the center of the world, at least when it comes to time zones?Īs with so many things in aviation, UTC has plenty of history behind it, as well as being a very useful concept for reducing confusion when operating flights across several time zones. Many aviators refer to it as Zulu – which we can probably all admit sounds a lot cooler. It is the central point of reference for time in all things aviation. You’ll notice UTC sits right at the top of the Flightradar24 home page, for good reason. But Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC, is the modern version. In the wintertime, as now, the current time in London (and everywhere else on the time zone) is still referred to as GMT. When the violence erupts, it’s over the top, of course, but when the story’s final pieces snap into place, there’s an undeniable magic fitting of its fairy tale title.When it comes to time zones, if you’re still talking about Greenwich Mean Time there’s something you should know: it’s old news. Despite a few (unnecessarily) nasty touches in his screenplay, this is Tarantino's tenderest film since career high point Jackie Brown. The resulting mix is a seductively nostalgic portrait of the Hollywood dream factory factory with something rotten bubbling just under the surface. Meanwhile, Cliff discovers a shady group of people living on an old acquaintance’s ranch. When a glamorous actress and director move in next door to him, Rick hopes some new connections could revive his prospects. His stuntman/driver Cliff (Brad Pitt, in a role that won him his first ever acting Oscar) is also affected and is making peace with their declining fortunes. It’s the late 1960s and a TV star named Rick (Leonardo DiCaprio) struggles to keep his career going. His stuntman/driver Cliff (Brad Pitt, in a role that.
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