Dryden Helps NASA's Ideas Take Wing

NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center is an enclave of free thinkers who make the journey to this spot in the Mojave Desert because they want to be here. Some say it's an acquired taste; the desert lifestyle will winnow out those who aren't sufficiently inspired by the lure of NASA flight research.

Those who remain are likely to give you a fish-eye stare if you bring up One NASA as if it's something new. NASA (and before 1958, the NACA) have always leveraged the flight test assets of this historic place for the benefit of research projects that were born at Langley, or Ames, or Marshall, or Johnson, or Goddard or anywhere a NASA brain conceives something that involves atmospheric flight.

Sure, Dryden's resident engineering talent generates projects as diverse as solar-powered UAVs that can fly higher than any other non-rocket powered aircraft, and jets that can precisely position themselves in the wake of another aircraft to realize 15 percent fuel savings. But it is part and parcel of the Dryden mission to fly the dreams of the other NASA centers. The space shuttle first took wing here in 1977, released from the back of its 747 carrier aircraft to validate its landing profile. When Langley engineers conceived the Mach 7 X-43 scramjet research craft, Dryden was the place from which to fly it. NASA Marshall's frugally successful forays with the X-40A were made possible by flights over California desert ranges Dryden shares with Edwards Air Force Base. Even the first use by the NACA of the expanse of Rogers Dry Lake which abuts Dryden was to accommodate an Ames test using a modified P-51 Mustang fighter in 1944. When a permanent NACA outpost was established here in 1946, its first task was to assist with the ambitious Air Force-led X-1 supersonic research program.

Gary Krier, Dryden's director of flight operations, has been here since he was a research pilot on the supercritical wing F-8 program that has generated vast fuel savings for air transports. And that program started as a concept in the mind of NASA Langley engineer Richard Whitcomb… see a trend here? Krier agrees there's nothing new about holding hands with other NASA centers to get the job done in the sky above Dryden. "Now, the notion that One NASA extends beyond even our traditional aeronautical joint ventures makes the concept accessible to everyone at Dryden," Krier says. "No matter what your task is at Dryden, there's a chance you can contribute to the success of another Center's project for the good of NASA." An example that comes to mind is Dryden's X-43 launch vehicle chief engineer, Laurie Marshall, who lent her talents on-screen for a Langley-produced NASA Connect educational television program that won an Emmy in 2001.

To support the Columbia accident investigation, pilots from Dryden and Johnson Space Center are flying Dryden's recently acquired Gulfstream III passenger aircraft, on loan to JSC for the duration of the investigation.

Kevin Petersen, Dryden's director, says One NASA goes beyond what Dryden can do for the Agency. "We have been the beneficiary of the talents of people from other NASA centers when we've been stumped by a technical hurdle. In those cases, our compatriots in the NASA family have come to our aid." Dryden's own Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program, created to develop useful uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) for environmental monitoring, received vital support from NASA Langley Research Center aerodynamicists in the quest for shapes best suited to extreme high altitude flight. NASA's powerplant expertise resides at the Agency's Glenn Research Center, where specialists in engine turbosuperchargers helped the ERAST Altus aircraft perform its mission at 55,000 feet.

Dryden's Airborne Sciences DC-8 and ER-2 aircraft enjoy a symbiotic relationship with experimenters at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Goddard Space Flight Center, Ames Research Center, Johnson Space Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, and Langley Research Center. Bread-and-butter for the Dryden Airborne Sciences jets comes from research projects devised by NASA scientists from around the Agency. The Dryden science jets also mimic NASA earth monitoring satellites, flying along the same paths as the satellites to verify and validate satellite instrumentation.

Louis Steers, Dryden's deputy associate director for management, has been at Dryden since the mid-1960s. "NASA will never, could never, be a cookie-cutter operation. Dryden contributes unique assets to the Agency. Our identity is secure here in the desert. And we realize the compelling reasons for sharing what we can do with the rest of NASA."