SFO's takeoff navigation point names are Grateful Dead-themed

Gallery: Airports with funny waypoint names

SFO has a few departure waypoints named in a Grateful Dead theme. Some include GRTFL, DEDHD ("Deadhead"), TRUKN, TYDYE, and more. Gallery: Airports with funny waypoint names

SFO has a few departure waypoints named in a Grateful Dead theme. Some include GRTFL, DEDHD ("Deadhead"), TRUKN, TYDYE, and more. Image 1 of / 19 Caption Close SFO's takeoff navigation point names are Grateful Dead-themed 1 / 19 Back to Gallery

Don't ever let it be said that those working in the flight industry don't have a sense of humor.

The airport administrators and FAA officials running SFO are not only cheeky, they're also culturally tuned. And apparently, they love rock 'n' roll.

Unbeknownst to the almost 50 million people that travel through SFO every year, admins and planners at SFO have named their airport's route navigation points — or, what are called "waypoints" — with terms associated with the Grateful Dead.

Waypoints, which are essentially target points in the air for a plane along a departure or landing route at an airport, are frequently given names that pay respect to the surrounding metropolitan.

"Typically, the FAA airspace team that designs the routes names them, often with input from local air traffic control facilities," FAA Pacific Division Public Affairs Manager Ian Gregor tells SFGATE. "We often name waypoints and procedures for people or subjects of local interest."

Other airports, even internationally, dub their waypoints in similar fashion. As Gregor tells SFGATE, Las Vegas' McCarran airport's waypoints have names like LUXOR and COWBY, and Washington D.C.'s Ronald Reagan National airport's are called things like LETZZ and RLLLL as well as HEROO.

San Francisco's, on the other hand, are a little more psychedelic. One of their departure routes, called TRUKN2, is called so for the Dead song "Truckin'" from 1970's "American Beauty," and its connected waypoints include names like GRTFL, DEDHD ("Deadhead"), TRUKN, TYDYE (tie-dye), HYPEE (hippie), and COSMC (for "Cosmic Charlie").

However, fun aside, it's unlikely you'll ever hear a command center officer say the names aloud. As Gregor says, "Pilots would not normally have any reason to comment on the waypoints."

So, while that last bit might sadden some Deadheads, it will at least be amusing for fans to wonder which waypoints they're hitting on their next flight out of SFO.

See a few other cities' quirky waypoints names in the above gallery.