Air America did not use the U-17 themselves, but did do maintenance on the Ravens' fleet.
The serial 1448 would seem to refer to 70-1448 which was one of a batch supplied under MAP to "various nations" (
http://home.att.net/~jbaugher/1970.html), although some sources suggest that particular example went to the Turkish Army. The photos on airliners.net also cast some doubt about the accuracy of the serial.
Needs someone to check the data plate. Probably not a good idea
.