NASA Headquarters
Dryden Flight Research Center
Some of the nation's greatest advances in aviation have been staged
at Hugh L. Dryden Flight Research Center. It is the home of aircraft that
push the envelope of aerodynamic theory, along with research pilot skill,
nerve, and courage.
Dryden is located at Edwards, California, in the Mojave Desert, some
80 miles north of Los Angeles. Enjoying nearly perfect weather for flight
research, this NASA facility sits at the southern end of a 260-mile high-altitude
high-speed supersonic corridor (there are three high-speed corridors altogether).
Situated adjacent to Rogers Dry Lake, a 44-square mile natural surface
for landing, Dryden is in an isolated area free of population density.
Dryden has data catalogued from years of flying experimental aircraft,
such as the Bell X-1the first aircraft to break the sound barrier on October
14, 1947. The X-1 program provided the National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics (NACA), NASA's predecessor, an ability to master the effects
of transonic speeds and the stability and control of aircraft flying in
that regime.
Since the late 1940s, Dryden has acquired a unique and highly specialized
capability for conducting flight research programs. Its research organization,
consisting of pilots, engineers, technicians and mechanics is unmatched
anywhere in the world.
The open skies, land and resources at Dryden proved their usefulness
to the space effort in a large way. The Mach-6 X-15 program researched
and developed various technologies that were implemented in the U.S. Mercury,
Gemini and Apollo spacecraft. The X-15 provided the pioneering work needed
to design a craft to go into space, then return to a horizontal landing
on Earth. Along with the X-15, lifting body research done at Dryden in
the 1960s helped pave the way for today's Space Shuttle.
| The X-24B is surrounded by support personnel
on Rogers Dry Lakebed after a research mission as two F-104s and a T-38
fly over head. First flown at NASA Dryden in 1973, the X-24B demonstrated
the ability for a pilot to maneuver and safely land an unpowered craft
on a conventional runway, as the Space Shuttle does today. |
In September 1996, Dryden celebrated its 50th anniversary of contributing
to the nation's aerospace capabilities. This expertise was clearly in evidence
in 1973 as the first flight of the X-24B took place. The X -24B was successor
to the wingless lifting bodies that were flown in a joint USAF-NASA research
program to demonstrate a pilot's ability to maneuver and safely land a
vehicle with a shape designed for reentry from space flight.
Like its wingless lifting body predecessorsthe M-2, HL-10 and the X-24A
that had flown at Drydenthe X-24B made use of a B-52 for air launch above
the dry lake bed. Released at 40,000 feet, the X -24B glided to a desert
touchdown a scant four minutes later. Flown from August 1973 to November
1975, the X-24B proved invaluable in shaping the Space Shuttle program.
An F-8 Crusader first flown at Dryden in 1972 inaugurated in 1973 the
first tests of Digital Fly-By -Wire (DFBW), a concept that utilizes an
electronic flight control system coupled with a digital computer. The research
aircraft tested DFBW as a replacement for conventional mechanical flight
controls. Well over 200 flights of the F-8 Crusader were carried out in
a DFBW program that lasted 13 yearsconsidered one of the most significant
and successful aeronautical programs in NASA history. Fly-by-wire flight
control technology, made possible in large measure by the F-8 Crusader
tests, was later applied in creating the Space Shuttle flight control system.
The center's primary study tools are research aircraft. But ground based
facilities play a significant role in Dryden research. These key facilities
include a high temperature and loads calibration laboratory to test complete
aircraft and structural components under the combined effects of loads
and heat, a highly developed aircraft flight instrumentation capability
and a flight systems laboratory with a diversified capability for avionics
system development.
Other assets of Dryden include a flow visualization facility that permits
examinations of how air courses around test models or small components,
a data analysis facility for processing of flight research data and a remotely
piloted research vehicles facility.
Dryden participated in the five free-flight Approach and Landing Tests
of the Space Shuttle Enterprise staged in 1977 and continues to support
Shuttle orbiter landings if diverted by bad weather from the Kennedy Space
Center in Florida. If a shuttle does land in California, the vehicle is
then ferried back to the launch site atop a 747 aircraft.
Clearly in evidence at Dryden is the match of the center's past prestige
with the necessary technical competence to tackle the aeronautical challenges
of the day. In this regard is the specially instrumented F/A-18, used to
investigate high angle of attack, or high alpha, flight. Today's high performance
jet aircraft can fly in the high alpha flight regime, but not necessarily
efficiently. The center's research created a data base for aircraft designers
to accurately predict high alpha airflow aircraft control and performance.
High alpha technology may result in better control and maneuverability
and enhanced safety in future high performance aircraft.
| NASA F-8 Digital Fly-By-Wire research
aircraft is on one of its pioneering flights in the 1970s. Dryden-led research
developed electronic fly-by-wire flight control systems used in many aircraft
today, including the Space Shuttle orbiters. |
Another high alpha program at Dryden featured the thrust-vectored X-31.
An international test organization managed by the Advanced Research Projects
Agency (ARPA) conducted flight tests to obtain data for next generation
high performance aircraft. In addition to NASA and ARPA, program participants
included the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, Rockwell Aerospace, Deutsche Aerospace,
and the Federal Republic of Germany.
In 1993 and 1995, a Propulsion Controlled Aircraft (PCA) system underwent
successful tests at Dryden. A PCA system provides a pilot with a computerized
system to land an aircraft with only engine controls in the event of a
catastrophic hydraulic system failure. Once considered an impossible feat
by many engineers, automatic PCA landings of two McDonnell Douglas aircraft,
an F -15 fighter and an MD-11 airliner, were accomplished.
The Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology program at
Dryden is attempting to develop remotely controlled aircraft capable of
sustained, slow flight at high altitudes to gather currently unavailable
information about our atmosphere. For example, Pathfinder is a solar-powered,
ultra light research aircraft developed by AeroVironment Corporation. The
vehicle will test very high-altitude and extremely long-duration flight
for periods of up to several weeks or months. Key areas of development
include solar cell, battery and electric motor technology; flight operations
techniques and procedures; structures; flight environment simulation; and
science mission demonstration.
For the past half century, Dryden Flight Research Center has been at
the forefront of flight research; a place where people can be engaged in
examining and resolving the great aeronautical and astronautical challenges
of our time. By pushing the experimental envelope, be it speed, altitude,
control, or other boundaries, Dryden research has strengthened the U.S.
position as a world-class leader in aeronautics.
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