Douglas B-66 Destroyer

The Douglas B-66 Destroyer is a light bomber that was designed and produced by the American aviation manufacturer Douglas Aircraft Company.

The B-66 was developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) and is derivative of the United States Navy's A-3 Skywarrior, a heavy carrier-based attack aircraft. Officials intended for the aircraft to be a simple development of the earlier A-3, taking advantage of being strictly land-based to dispense with unnecessary naval features. Due to the USAF producing extensive and substantially divergent requirements, it became necessary to make considerable alterations to the design, leading to a substantial proportion of the B-66 being original. The B-66 retained the three-man crew arrangement of the US Navy's A-3; differences included the incorporation of ejection seats, which the A-3 had lacked.

Performing its maiden flight on 28 June 1954, the aircraft was introduced to USAF service during 1956. The standard model, designated B-66, was a bomber model that was procured to replace the aging Douglas A-26 Invader; in parallel, a photo reconnaissance model, the RB-66, was also produced alongside. Further variants of the type were developed, leading to the aircraft's use in signals intelligence, electronic countermeasures, radio relay, and weather reconnaissance operations.

Aircraft were commonly forward deployed to bases in Europe, where they could more easily approach the airspace of the Soviet Union. Multiple variants were deployed around Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. They flew in the Vietnam War, typically operating as support aircraft for other aircraft that were active over the skies of North Vietnam and Laos, as well as missions to map SAM and AAA sites in both countries. The last examples of the type were withdrawn from service in 1975.

Design and development

Background

When the A-3 Skywarrior was in development for United States Navy, the project attracted attention from senior officers of the United States Air Force (USAF), who were skeptical regarding claims made about the design's specifications and capabilities. In particular, the USAF questioned its reported take-off weight of 68,000lb, suggesting that it would be impossible to achieve. It has been suggested that this was a part of opposition within the USAF to the Navy's proposed "supercarriers": the United States-class, which would have carried the A-3, amongst other aircraft.

While the supercarrier project did not proceed,

Redesign

USAF officials had originally intended the conversion to be a relatively straightforward matter of removing the carrier-specific features and fitting USAF avionics, but otherwise adhering as closely as possible to the original A-3 design. Both the fuselage and wing were entirely redesigned from scratch, rather than simply de-navalised. The A-3 was powered by a pair of Pratt & Whitney J57 turbojet engines, whereas the B-66 used two Allison J71 engines. Gunston and Gilchrist note that this engine swap "offered no apparent advantage", generating less thrust and being more fuel-hungry than the J57 engine which was already in USAF use. An impactful difference was the decision to equip the B-66 with ejection seats, a feature which the A-3 had lacked entirely. The test program, conducted with the five pre-production aircraft, heavily contributed to improvements in the production aircraft. On 4 January 1955, the first production B-66B aircraft, which featured an increased gross weight and numerous other refinements, performed its first flight. A total of 72 of the B-66B bomber version were built, 69 fewer aircraft than had been originally planned.

A total of 13 B-66B aircraft later were modified into EB-66B electronic countermeasures (ECM) aircraft, which played a forward role in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. They were stationed at RAF Chelveston with the 42nd Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, who performed the conversion during the early 1960s. They rotated out of an alert pad in France during the time that the 42nd had them.

These aircraft, along with the RB-66Cs that the 42nd received, saw combat service during the Vietnam War. Unlike the US Navy's A-3 Skywarrior, which performed bombing missions in the theatre, the Destroyer did not perform bombing missions in Vietnam.

The RB-66C was a specialized electronic reconnaissance and electronic countermeasures (ECM) aircraft. According to Gunston and Gilchrist, it was the first aircraft designed from the onset for electronic intelligence (ELINT) missions. It was operated by an expanded crew of seven, which included the additional electronics warfare specialists. A total of 36 of these aircraft were constructed. The additional crew members were housed in the space that was used to accommodate the camera/bomb bay of other variants. These aircraft were outfitted with distinctive wingtip pods that accommodated various receiver antennas, which were also present upon a belly-mounted blister.

The final Douglas B-66 variant was the WB-66D weather reconnaissance aircraft. 36 were built.

By 1975, the last EB-66C/E aircraft had been withdrawn from USAF service. Most aircraft were scrapped in place, others were temporarily stored while awaiting eventual scrapping.

Variants

;RB-66A

:(Douglas Model 1326) All-weather photo-reconnaissance variant, five built.

;RB-66B

:(Douglas Model 1329) Variant of the RB-66A with production J71-A-13 engines and higher gross weight, 149 built.

;B-66B

:(Douglas Model 1327A) Tactical bomber variant of the RB-66B, 72 built.

;NB-66B

:One B-66B used for testing and a RB-66B used for F-111 radar trials.

;RB-66C

:Electronic reconnaissance variant of the RB-66B, included an additional compartment for four equipment operators, 36 built.

;EB-66C

:Four RB-66Cs with uprated electronic countermeasures equipment.

;WB-66D

:Electronic weather reconnaissance variant with the crew compartment modified for two observers, 36 built with two later modified to X-21A.

;EB-66E

:Specialized electronic reconnaissance conversion of the B-66B.

Northrop X-21

thumb|A Douglas EB-66E Destroyer in flight. Aircraft of the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing, 41st or 42nd TEWS based at [[Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base over Southeast Asia on 30 March 1970.]]

The Northrop X-21 was a modified WB-66D with an experimental wing, designed to conduct laminar flow control studies. Laminar-flow control was thought to potentially reduce drag by as much as 25%. Control would be by removal of a small amount of the boundary-layer air by suction through porous materials, multiple narrow surface slots, or small perforations. Northrop began flight research in April 1963 at Edwards Air Force Base, but with all of the problems encountered, and money going into the war, the X-21 was the last experiment involving this concept.

Operators

;

United States Air Force

1st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (RB-66)

::Spangdahlem Air Base, West Germany, 1957-59

::RAF Alconbury, England 1959-66

9th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (RB/WB-66)

::Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina 1956-66

12th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (RB-66)

::Yokota Air Base, Japan 1956-60

19th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (EB/RB-66)

::RAF Sculthorpe, UK 1956-59

::Spangdahlem Air Base, West Germany 1959

::RAF Bruntingthorpe, UK 1959-62

::Toul-Rosieres Air Base, France 1962-65

::Chambley-Bussieres Air Base, France 1965-66

::Shaw AFB, South Carolina 1966-67

19th Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron (EB/RB-66)

::Shaw AFB, South Carolina 1967-68

::Itazuke Air Base, Japan 1968-69

::Kadena Air Base, Japan 1969-70

30th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (RB-66C)

::Sembach Air Base, West Germany 1957-58

39th Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron EB-66E/RB-66C

::Spangdahlem AB, Germany 1969-72

39th Tactical Electronic Warfare Training Squadron (EB/RB-66)

::Shaw AFB, South Carolina 1969-74

41st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (EB/RB-66)

::Shaw AFB, South Carolina 1956-59

::Takhli Air Base, Thailand 1965-67

41st Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron (EB/RB-66)

::Takhli Air Base, Thailand 1967-69

42d Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (B/EB/RB/WB-66)

::Spangdahlem Air Base, West Germany 1956-59

::RAF Chelveston, UK 1959-62

::Toul-Rosieres Air Base, France 1962-63

::Chambley-Bussieres Air Base, France 1963-66

42d Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron (EB/RB-66)

::Takhli Air Base, Thailand 1968-70

::Korat Air Base, Thailand 1970-74

43d Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (RB-66)

::Shaw AFB, South Carolina 1956-59

4411th Combat Crew Training Group (B/EB/RB/WB-66)

::Shaw AFB, South Carolina 1959-66

4416th Test Squadron (EB/RB-66)

::Shaw AFB, South Carolina 1963-70

4417th Combat Crew Training Squadron (EB/RB-66)

::Shaw AFB, South Carolina 1966-69

Aircraft on display

thumb|A Douglas RB-66B Destroyer

thumb|A WB-66D display at the [[Museum of Aviation (Warner Robins)|Museum of Aviation, Robins AFB]]

;RB-66B

53-0466 – Dyess Linear Air Park, Dyess AFB, Texas.
53-0475 – National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio

;RB-66C

54-0465 – Shaw AFB, South Carolina.

;WB-66D

55-0390 – USAF Airman Heritage Museum at Lackland AFB, Texas.
55-0392 – Museum of Aviation, Robins AFB, Georgia
55-0395 – Pima Air and Space Museum, adjacent to Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, Arizona

Specifications (B-66B)

frameless|right|3-view line drawing of the Douglas B-66B Destroyer

Notable appearances in media

The shooting down of an EB-66 over North Vietnam and the subsequent rescue of one of its crew became the subject for the book Bat*21 by William Charles Anderson, and later a film version (1988) starring Gene Hackman and Danny Glover.

References

Citations

Bibliography

Baugher, Joe. "Douglas B-66 Destroyer." USAAC/USAAF/USAF Bomber Aircraft: Third Series of USAAC/USAAF/USAF Bombers, 2001. Retrieved: 27 July 2006.
Donald, David and Jon Lake, eds. Encyclopedia of World Military Aircraft. London: AIRtime Publishing, 1996. .
Gunston, Bill and Peter Gilchrist. Jet Bombers: From the Messerschmitt Me 262 to the Stealth B-2. Osprey, 1993. .
"Douglas RB-66B 'Destroyer'." National Museum of the United States Air Force. Retrieved: 27 July 2006.
Winchester, Jim, ed. "Douglas A-3 Skywarrior." Military Aircraft of the Cold War (The Aviation Factfile). London: Grange Books plc, 2006. .

External links

B-66 "Destroyer" Website History of US Tactical Warfare, website by former B-66 crews