The plane turned out to be African, for one (8)
I believe the answer is:
elephant
'be african for one' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how they can define each other.
'the plane turned out' is the wordplay.
'turned out' is an anagram indicator (turn out can mean to organise).
'the'+'plane'='theplane'
'theplane' with letters rearranged gives 'ELEPHANT'.
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for elephant that I've seen before include "Pachyderm hunted for ivory" , "Five-toed pachyderm" , "Animal with a trunk" , "Jumbo" , "The plane (anag.)" .)