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Description
| Manufacturer: | Douglas | |
| Base model: | B-66 | |
| Designation: | WB-66 | |
| Version: | D | |
| Nickname: | Destroyer | |
| Designation System: | U.S. Air Force | |
| Designation Period: | 1924-Present | |
| Basic role: | Bomber | |
| Modified Mission: | Weather reconnaissance | |
Specifications
| Not Yet Available |
Known serial numbers
Examples of this type may be found at
| Museum | City | State |
| Museum of Aviation | Warner Robins AFB | Georgia |
| Pima Air & Space Museum | Tucson | Arizona |
| USAF History and Traditions Museum | San Antonio | Texas |
WB-66D on display
Museum of Aviation | Pima Air & Space Museum | USAF History and Traditions Museum |
Recent comments by our visitors
| MSGT (Ret) Paul Jacobson Bismarck, ND | I was a weather tech on this plan, just like Roger Krytes, who wrote earlier. He and I worked together in the 42nd Tac Recon Squadron at Shelveston, England. In fact, if you read this, Roger, please contact me at pjacobs@bis.midco.net. It would be fun to hear from you. 12/01/2011 @ 19:38 [ref: 50814] |
| Bob Stern , VA | I worked on RB-66C and WB-66D in the 11th Tac Recon Squadron at Yokota AB, Japan from 1957 to 1958, our squadron had twelve of each. They definitely were not supersonic. Those miserable J-71 engines could barely get the plane off the ground, let alone breAk Mach One! They were excellemnt aircraft except for the engines and if the USAF had a brain, it would have re-engined them with the original planned J-57 and they would have been truly formidable. Their record in Vietnam as EB-66Cs was outstanding and with a decent engine could still be flying today. 08/04/2010 @ 17:18 [ref: 28569] |
| Al Owens , DE | I was on the B-45 "Tornado" bombers until the B-66 "Destroyer" replaced them in 1958. The B-45 was given its last "Hoorah" when all flyable Tornadoes did high-speed passes over RAF Sculthorpe on a bright fall day. It was spectacular to see them going flat-out over the airfield. Even the RB-66 boys had to be impressed that the old B-45 bomber was such a "hot rod." I noticed the B-66 was touted as being "supersonic" which I have problems in believing that is true. I continued working on B-66's while at Scully and also at Shaw AFB, SC. I was at Shaw when the B-66s came over from England for the "Wexval" mod that changed their primary mission. I was also with them at Nellis AFB to calibrate their bombing system RADAR for use in Vietnam. The plane's aerial cameras was used to score hits on a ground target. The J-71 engines had a hard time getting the B-66 off the ground in the dry heat there. I thought we had lost one during take-off even using water injection systems. The engine's EGT control system was useless! It was a lead sled. "Hello supersonic." 04/05/2010 @ 08:18 [ref: 25982] |
| ROGER E. KRITES TSGT, RET. WOOSTER, OH | I FLEW AS A WEATHER TECH ON WB66D #55407 AND OTHERS OUT OF SPANGDAHLEM AB,GERMANY.MY SQUADRON WAS 42ND TRS(E@W)ASSIGNED TO THE 10TH TAC RECON WING.WHEN DEGUAL DECIDED TO KICK THE NUCLEAR CAPABLE AIRCRAFT OUT OF FRANCE OUR ENTIRE WING WAS MOVED TO 3 BASES IN ENGLAND.THOSE BASES WERE ALCONBURY.BRUNTINGTHORP,AND CHELVESTON.BY THE WAY,THE ONLY TIME A B66 WOULD GO SUPERSONIC WOULD BE IN AN UNCONTROLLED DIVE !SPIN,CRASH AND BURN! 03/23/2009 @ 10:08 [ref: 23999] |
| Rod Smith Niceville, FL | I flew as a weatherman on WB66D's from '57 to '61. Your contention that the WB66D was supersonic is incorrect. 11/21/2006 @ 07:45 [ref: 14803] |
| Rod Smith Niceville, FL | I flew as a weatherman on B66D's from '57 to '61. Your contention that the WB66D was supersonic is incorrect. 11/21/2006 @ 07:44 [ref: 14802] |
| A.M. Barnes Honolulu, HI | Aloha from Hawaii. 26 Jun 2004.
The WB-66D aircraft came into being after the WWII fighter units that scouted weather from England and West Germany rotated back to CONUS in mid-1950s. Tactical nuclear weapons of both NATO and Warsaw Pact threw weather reconnaissance into a new light as the nuclear balance along the Iron Curtain became more precipitous and certainly more dangerous for any reconnaissance aircrews. The WB-66D was supersonic, and with a WEATHER crew of five sampling people, these WB-66 aircraft were set up to make high speed dashes along the NATO/Warsaw Pact borders in advance of a nuclear exchange, get the badly needed sampling data, and turn away toward England at Mach 2 airspeeds. By 1965, diplomacy and rationality replaced unlimited tactical nuclear weapons along the Iron Curtain, and the idea that both NATO and Warsaw Pact forces were there in full force became so expensive that the Soviet Union began to pull its own forces back into Russia leaving local East German forces to oversee the major intersections of the Iron Curtain. The NATO forces likewise began to thin out with the advances of tactical nuclear weapons like the Pershing I and, finally, the Pershing II. When it became obvious that a limited tactical exchange was not likely, the WB-66D was itself was obsolete in Europe, and many of them were converted to EB-66 models for use in Viet Nam. 06/26/2004 @ 12:53 [ref: 7697] |
| Colin McGregor Texarkana, TX | I worked on these at RAF Chelveston in England, I was an aircraft mechanic.
This was in the late fifties, I left for the States in 1961. It seems to me that these planes had been in France previously;I had been moved to Chelveston from RAF Lakenheath. Sorry, I don't recall what Wing or Squadron I was assigned to. 12/07/2002 @ 11:33 [ref: 6196] |
| Henry L. Negake , FL | In 1957 or 58, the 17th.(I think) Bomb Wing departed Eglin
AFB for RAF Sculthorpe, Norfolk, England and joined with the 47th. Bomb Wing (Tactical). The 84th., 85th. and 86th. Bomb Squadrons flew B-66's, while RB-66's were flown by the 19th. Tactical Reconaisance Squadron. Are you familiar with them? I served with the 605th Comm. Sq. and provided communications for The 47th. Bomb Wing. Are any of these outfits' aircraft displayed? 07/08/2001 @ 07:55 [ref: 2615] |
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