VP-YNA  Vickers 748 Viscount                            (c/n 98)

                                 

                                      VP-YNA seen here in this oft-published shot, was the first of five Viscounts purchased in 1956.
                                      Several more "previously owned" machines were added later.   In 1965 CAA was dissolved and
                                      produced three separate airlines:  Air Rhodesia, Air Malawi and Zambian Airways (heaven forbid
                                      that, now they were independent, the three countries could agree on something as democratic as,
                                      say, the Scandinavian Airlines set-up).  Thus this Viscount passed to Air Rhodesia, although it did,
                                      in fact, wind up with Air Malawi in 1968 as 7Q-YDT.  And that's another thing......why did ICAO,
                                      in their infinite wisdom, have to resort to number-letter combos for the "emerging" nations? There
                                      were plenty of two letter combos available without resorting to that.    And it's not even as if the
                                      number is significant of the continent, either.  Africa's run the gamut of 3,5,6,7 and 9, while
                                      Botswana's is A2.  Where did that come from?   Turns out Zimbabwe uses "Z-".  Why not "ZM-"
                                      to be in line with the rest of the world's nomenclature?   Looks like ICAO has about as much
                                      enforcement power as the United nations.