Scrambling aircraft

[sholay]

Why do people say they "scrambled the aircraft" when they authorize planes to take off (usually in military terms)?

I can't see any connection at all.

[Quizmonster]

Basically, it is the aircrew who 'scramble'. You must have seen films about the Battle of Britain, where the chaps are lolling around on the grass or in the crew-room at Bigggin Hill, smoking, chatting etc. Then the alarm goes and they're off! Quickly donning jackets, running across the pan to their aircraft, climbing in, starting engines and rolling off to the end of the runway. It wasn't exactly a dignified procedure, was it? Hence...a scramble. The word has been used for such goings-on since the 1600s...although not, obviously, relating to aeroplanes back then!