Douglas B-66 Destroyer

B-66 Destroyer
A Douglas B-66B (53-506) in flight
General information
Type	Light bomber
National origin	United States
Manufacturer	Douglas Aircraft Company
Primary user	United States Air Force
Number built	294[1]
History
Introduction date	1956
First flight	28 June 1954
Retired	1975[2]
Developed from	Douglas A-3 Skywarrior
Developed into	Northrop X-21

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 The last examples of the type were withdrawn during 1975.