Photos of B-66 Aircraft

B-66 Photos

Click here for Aircraft Museums
and Aerospace Exhibits

RB-66A Destroyer
Note the radar antenna dome and tail guns

When RB-66 was brand new it had the highest accident rate in the Air
Force. Fortunately when General Curtis LeMay became Vice-Chief of Staff, TAC started getting some parts and some refits and IRAN support that was desperately needed.

When General LeMay went to SAC, TAC got nothing. In fact, SAC's precious B-52 production line took the J-57 engines scheduled for the B-66. If TAC had received those engines instead of the heavy and slow Allison J-71, we would have had a much better airplane could have run faster than the speed of sound. That is why the B-66 was designed with a "coke bottle" fuselage. One fighter pilot that was flying the RB-66C in 1960 or 1961, claimed he took it through the sound barrier
running from a MIG on a RB-66C Electronic Reconnaissance flight over Turkey or somewhere down there. Submitted by Bill Starnes

EB-66B Destroyer - Brown Cradle
Notice jammer antennas under the fuselage & tail cone

EB-66B on KC-135 Tanker using probe & drogue system

EB-66 during in-flight refueling

The EB-66C (photo below) performed Electronic Reconaissance and Jamming and carried 6-7 crewmembers -- Pilot, Navigator and 4 Electronic Warfare Officers in downward ejection seats in the bomb bay. After the tail guns were removed and replaced with the Tail Cone that housed jammers and chaff, the Gunner's Seat in the cockpit was used by Instructor Pilots and Instructor Navigators while checking out other Pilots and Navigators in the B-66.

I flew my last combat mission in 0459 -- and know that many other
EB-66ers have more than a fond attachment to this particular airframe.
Ned Colburn

"This thing has got to be from early in the life of the
APD-4 system, which died well before the airplane did."
Walt Davis

WB-66D

The WB-66D was a development of the basic RB-66B designed especially for weather reconnaissance and was the first aircraft ever built for exclusively as a weather reconnaissance aircraft. All other weather reconnaissance aircraft up to this time were modified from existing aircraft. The mission of the WB-66D included weather intelligence gathering over the battle area as well as traditional weather reconnaissance duties like storm tracking.

A total of 36 WB-66Ds were built with 1955 serial numbers. Deliveries to the USAF began in the summer of 1957. The aircraft carried a crew of five, the most of any B-66 variant, and an extensive assortment of weather data collection instruments which fed raw data into onboard weather analysis computers giving a complete weather report while in flight. The WB-66D retained the twin 20mm cannon tail turret, but carried no offensive bomb load. The bomb bay was used for the extra crewmen and the weather data gathering and analysis equipment.

EB-66 Museums and
Aerospace Exhibits

• Chanute AFB Aerospace Museum, IL

• EB-66E Shark at Korat RTAFB

• Wright-Patterson AFB Museum, OH

• Davis-Monthan AFB - Maint & Regeneration Center

• PhotoVault Aviation Museum (Photos for Sale)

For More B-66 Photos

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