NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

More than 40 seventh-grade girls from several area middle schools viewed some of NASA's unique research and mission support aircraft, including this F/A-18, during their AAUW Tech Trek visit to NASA Dryden. (NASA Photo / Tom Tschida)

NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center hosted more than 40 seventh-grade girls and their chaperones March 3 at the American Association of University Women's annual "Tech Trek" tour. The event, designed to stimulate the students' interest in scientific or technology related careers, featured presentations from Dryden engineers and technicians on such topics as women in engineering, flight simulation, weather forecasting, and flying remotely operated aircraft. The girls also got up-close-and-personal with several of Dryden's research and mission support aircraft during a hangar tour, and tried their hands at "flying" a high-performance jet in one of Dryden's flight simulators.

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Courtney Handy, a student at Hillview Middle School in Palmdale, Calif., tries her hand at flying an F-16 simulator during the AAUW Tech Trek visit to NASA Dryden, as NASA engineer Jeremy Knittel observes. (NASA photo / Tom Tschida)

Operations engineer Leslie Monforton of Tybrin Corp. explains the uses of the "DROID" – the Dryden Remotely Operated Integrated Drone -- to middle school girls on the AAUW Tech Trek tour. The DROID – a large modified Super Flyin' King model aircraft – is used to carry small research experiments at NASA Dryden. (NASA photo / Tom Tschida)