VH-TAL    'Hann'                                               c/n  13921

                                            Ex USAAF C-47A-30-DK  43-48105.  To RAAF as A65-58 (VHCIK). To TAA in
                                            1946.  It was sold, to West African Airways Corp in Nigeria in 1957 as VR-NCK. 
                                            After that state became independent in 1960, it was re-registered 5N-AAK.   I can
                                            never understand why ICAO decided to allot these number-letter combinations after
                                            WW II.    It is not as if all the two letter permutations had been taken. 'NG' would have
                                            done nicely for Nigeria. But 5N?  Give me a break!  A case could be made for the number
                                            denoting a continent, '5' being Africa.  The 'N' then drops naturally for Nigeria.  But how
                                            about Samoa (5W)?  Not exactly Africa, is it?   And why was Algeria given 7T?
                                            Meanwhile, poor old 5N-AAK had been commandeered by the Air Force and was
                                            destroyed on the ground during the Nigerian Civil War, (in November 1967) having
                                            been strafed by rocket armed Federal L-29 Delphins.    The color shot below was
                                            taken by Barrie Colledge in 1956.