tango uniform

adj – slang: military phonetic alphabet for letters ‘t’ and ‘u’, used as euphemistic abbreviation for ‘tits up’.
etymology: from military aviation, where the flight attitude indicator on the aircraft instrument panel contained a miniature representation of an airplane which showed the flight attitude – climb, dive, bank; one style of the indicator was shaped with ‘v’ forms between the ‘dot’ – representing the fuselage (body) and the ‘dashes’ – representing the wings; (–v*v– see illus.) the ‘v’s were frequently referred to as ‘tits’; the term referred to the potentially hazardous inverted flight condition – ‘upside down’ – where the ‘tits’ would be seen as being ‘up’.

“Don’t get ‘tango uniform’!”

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