VH-TAL   Douglas DC-3CS1C3G                                            (c/n  13921)
                  
                                                                                    
   
                                            Ex USAAF C-47A-30-DK  43-48105.  To RAAF as A65-58 (VHCIK). It was
                                            civilianized in 1946 and went to TAA as 'Hann'. My shot outside their hangar at
                                            Essendon was in 1954.  The color shot below was taken by Barrie Colledge in
                                            1956.  In 1957 -TAL was sold to West African Airways Corp in Nigeria as
                                            VR-NCK.    After that state became independent in 1960, it was reregistered
                                            5N-AAK.   I can never understand why ICAO decided to allot these number-
                                            letter combinations after WW II, although a radio ham friend indicates that they
                                            are the call signs for these various countries.  As far as aircraft identity prefixes
                                            were concerned, however, it's not as if all the two letter permutations had been
                                            taken. 'NG' would have done nicely for Nigeria. But 5N?  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.