B-66 Destroyer

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(Redirected from RB-66C)

Image:B-66.jpg Image:RB-66B.jpg The Douglas B-66 Destroyer was a Strategic Air Command light bomber based on the United States Navy's A3D Skywarrior, and intended to replace the Douglas B-26 Invader. A RB-66 photo-reconnaissance version was ordered simultaneously.

At first, the Air Force thought the conversion would be an easy matter of removing the carrier-specific features, so no prototypes were ordered, just five pre-production RB-66A models (the reconnaissance mission was deemed higher priority). The list of modifications grew, and before long, the easy conversion became a substantially new aircraft. Many of the changes were due to the Air Force's requirement for low-level operations, while the Navy plane was a high-altitude bomber.

The first RB-66A preproduction aircraft flew in 1954, while the first production RB-66B aircraft flew in early 1955. Deliveries to the USAF began in 1956, and 145 of this model were produced. They were used as the major night photo-reconnaissance aircraft of the USAF during this period.

Meanwhile, 72 of the B-66B bomber version were built, 69 fewer than originally planned. Thirteen B-66B aircraft were modified into EB-66B electronics countermeasures aircraft for the Vietnam War.

The RB-66C was a specialised electronic reconnaissance and ECM aircraft with a crew of seven; 36 were built. The additional crewmembers occupied what was the camera/bomb bay of other variants. RB-66C aircraft had distinctive wingtip pods. They were used over Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and later over Vietnam. In 1966, they were redesignated EB-66C.

The final B-66 variant was the WB-66D weather reconnaissance aircraft, 36 of which were constructed.

The EB-66C/E had left USAF service by 1973. One RB-66B is at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio.

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