VP-BAA Consolidated 16 Commodore                           (c/n   ?)

                                

                                    I make no apologies for this image.  It came from a small photograph published in a 1952 edition
                                    of "Convairiety", the house organ of the Consolidated Vultee Corporation, and this is the best I
                                    can do..  Evidentlly this grand old lady of the air was still operating at that time.  I do not know
                                    which one of the 14 Commodores built that this one was.  I suspect it was acquired in the mid to
                                    late 1940s and probably flew with Bahamas Airways for a few years.    The Bahamas (at least
                                    while it was a British Colony) probably re-assigned the same registration more than any other
                                    country that I know, and that's saying something when one considers VH- land!  Anyway, there
                                    were at least four or five re-issues of just about every sequence in the VP-BAA to VP-BAZ
                                    range.  This VP-BAA was the first, however, and was, in fact,  the first aircraft to be registered
                                    in the island colony.   The next VP-BAA was a Grumman Goose, followed by a DC-3.  In the
                                    1970s the registration was worn by a Boeing 727.   There may have been others before VP-B
                                    became C6.   I often wonder why ICAO  began assigning number and letter combinations after
                                    1945?  I mean, there were lots of two lettered combinations left.  There was no need to do that.
                                    The rot started with Israel (4X-) which was fairly quickly followed by Ceylon (4R-). I don't                       
                                    think it was even Sri Lanka at the time.  And they're not even consistant.  Most of the African
                                    regos begin with "5", but not all of them, so it isn't a regionalized system.  Just imagine, there's
                                    one bloke, somewhere, (Montreal, I suppose) who actually assigns these codings.