Douglas B-66 Destroyer

what is it?

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.

🔎How to recognise it: 2 jet engines · 22.1 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 1,015 km/htop speed
• size 37.6 tmax take-off weight
• built 209made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 72 years ago, in 1954.
• 🏎️Top speed is 7.8× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 22.1 m: about 5 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 6 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🏔️Can fly 1.4× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

1954-06-28

introduced

1956

retired

1973

status

retired

number built

209

role

light bomber

origin

🇺🇸 United States

makers

Douglas

engines

2× Allison J71-A-11 (later Allison J71-A-13)

crew

3

length

22.9 m

wingspan

22.1 m

height

7.2 m

max take-off weight

37.6 t

top speed

1,015 km/h

cruise speed

850 km/h

range

—

ceiling

12,009 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.

family