Browse Archive

  • The Mate/Demate Device is used to lower Discovery onto the host NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, which carried it across the U.S. to Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

    All about the MDD

    The most extensive overhaul in the 29-year history of Dryden's Mate/Demate Device was completed in 2004, and involved replacing the mammoth structure's original coating of lead-based paint with a fresh coat of non-toxic paint.

  • Space Shuttle Enterprise prototype separates from the NASA 747 on its first flight without a tailcone, which had been used in earlier flights.

    Where we've been

    Behind Discovery's landing on Runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base were several decades of work dedicated to developing the world's first reusable orbital spacecraft.

  • August 2005 X-tra cover. Showing radar image and ER-2 taking off.

    Technology Triumph

    Dryden ER-2 pilot David Wright flew near the wall of the eye of Hurricane Emily on July 17 as she moved across the Caribbean toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. It was a rough flight and it appeared that it was about to get a lot rougher.

  • Anthony Atchley, a Pennsylvania State University researcher, checks the microphones used to make detailed recordings of sonic booms. NASA Photo By Tom Tschida

    Lowering the Boom

    As neighbors of Edwards Air Force are well aware, supersonic jets cause a thundering boom that shakes walls and windows with a deep rumble, startling pets and humans alike.

  • The X-43A Special Edition was judged a 2005 Grand Award winner in the Awards for Communication Excellence competition. Just two percent of the 5,000 entries won the award.

    X-Press nets 5th straight APEX Grand Award

    In the 2005 Awards for Publication Excellence - or APEX - competition, the Dryden X-Press has been honored with a Grand Award for the X-43A Special Edition, titled "11 Seconds into the Unknown." The win marks the fifth consecutive year that the X-Press has captured a Grand Award in the international contest, which honors the top two percent of communication tools selected from nearly 5,000 entries.

  • Open house set to include Dryden flights

    Dryden pilots will be flying six different aircraft in three flying demonstrations during the Edwards Open House and Air Show that begins Oct. 22.

  • An artist's concept of the Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey of Mars, or ARES aircraft. It is believed a planetary flight vehicle like the ARES could survey Mars and gather key information for a manned Mars mission. NASA Illustration by Garry D. Qualls

    Planetary Flight Vehicles

    It won't be long before an airplane can be sent to Mars in a carrier spacecraft and released from its aeroshell into the atmosphere, ready to collect information and send detailed imagery back to scientists on Earth. The data gathered is expected to lead to new questions and answers that will impact future science missions.

  • Here is a concept of what the 100-Day Demonstrator might look like. Joey Ponthieux, a NCI Information Systems employee at Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., developed the illustration.

    100-Day Demonstrator

    Fleets of flying wings, or airships, fly almost undetected overhead. They're engaged in a variety of missions, from surveying and telecommunications to gathering atmospheric and weather information that has never before been available.

  • With Dryden's assistance, the Altair uninhabited air vehicle recently completed a series of missions for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

    Altair Effort Scores Win for NASA/NOAA Team

    A series of science missions conducted in May with the Altair uninhabited air vehicle marked the first UAV collaboration by Dryden and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

  • After replacement of its landing gear, NASA's Super Guppy turbine cargo plane departs Dryden, above, for a return trip to Johnson Space Center in Texas.

    Super Guppy Makes Brief Appearence

    It attracts attention everywhere it goes, and probably inspires no small number of UFO sightings. The bizarre-looking Super Guppy cargo transport, the last of its kind, made a low and slow journey from Houston, Texas, to Edwards Air Force Base April 14 for landing gear maintenance at Dryden.

  • New NASA Administrator Michael Griffin (right) shares a moment with Director Kevin Petersen (left) and F-15B project manager Stephen Corda (center) during Griffin's visit to NASA Dryden Flight Research Center on Tuesday, May 24.

    Griffin Visits Dryden

    NASA's new administrator, Michael Griffin, held a May 24 town hall meeting at Dryden in which he introduced himself to employees and fielded questions about his philosophy and vision for the Agency.

  • Bryant makes a point to, from left, Richard Reeves, James Fletcher, Dale Compton and Ted Ayers.

    Bryant Leaves Behind a Legacy

    Noted NASA engineer Roy Glenn Bryant died May 30 at his Lancaster home. He had retired from Dryden in April after a 48-year career, much of it dedicated to work with the Center's legendary research aircraft Bryant was born Feb. 3, 1933, in Olton, Texas. He received a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Texas Technological College in Lubbock in 1956 and then joined the U.S. Army with a rank of lieutenant.

  • Dryden's F-15B test fixture recently was used in the Lifting Insulating Foam Trajectory experiment as part of NASA's return-to-flight work. The LIFT experiment tested behavior of insulating foam debris when it is shed from the Shuttle's external fuel tank.

    F-15B gives a LIFT

    As part of the Agency's return-to-flight effort, NASA engineers are acquiring data on how insulating foam debris or "divots" behave when these small pieces are shed from the Shuttle's external fuel tank during launch.

  • Rebecca Mittenthal, 13, tries her hand at landing an F/A-18 in Dryden's flight simulator.

    Odyssey inspires students

    Dryden's Office of Academic Investments partnered with area corporate and government sponsors Feb. 11 to host the seventh annual Math and Science Odyssey, a daylong event designed to stimulate interest among middle schoolers in math- and science-based careers.

  • Phase 2 of the Active Aeroelastic Wing aircraft recently wrapped up at Dryden, validating the concept that active control of wing flexibility can control aircraft roll at supersonic speeds. The 21st-century AAW project incorporated century-old wing-warping technology pioneered by the Wright brothers.

    AAW phase 2 completed

    A flight research project that put a 21st century twist on century-old technology - a high-tech derivative of the Wright brothers' wing-warping method of controlling an aircraft's turning ability - can be summed up in two words: "It works!" That was the conclusion of project manager Larry Myers as flight tests in the Active Aeroelastic Wing project at Dryden neared their end.

  • This image on the Dryden (then the NACA High-Speed Flight Research Station) ramp in June 1953 shows, clockwise from left, the Bell X-1A, D-558-1, XF-92A, X-5, D-558-2, X-4 and X-3, center.

    NACA - 90 years later

    On March 3, NASA marked the 90th anniversary of the founding of its predecessor organization, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and the achievements of nearly a century of work in NASA's keystone discipline, aeronautics. For the past 90 years, the Agency has spearheaded advances in aeronautical technology that have found applications in nearly all civil, commercial and military aircraft since the NACA's founding.

  • NASA's Active Aeroelastic Wing F/A-18 resumed flight tests in the second phase of the program at the Dryden Flight Research Center in early December 2004.

    AAW - Phase 2 flights proving concept

    Dryden's F/A-18 active aeroelastic wing flights resumed in December, continuing validation of the concept that flexible wings can be twisted, or warped, in flight to control aircraft roll.

  • Dryden's DC-8 recently completed a mission over the Arctic but in this image it flies the warmer skies above the Antelope Valley. NASA Photo by Jim Ross

    DC-8 supports Arctic mission

    Aboard Dryden's DC-8 flying laboratory, an international team of scientists embarked on a journey in January to improve modeling of global-scale air quality and climate-change predictions through high-quality measurements of the Arctic region's atmosphere.

  • During his participation in a Jan. 6 One NASA Led Workshop at Dryden, Deputy Administrator Fred Gregory spoke about some of the changes and challenges currently being faced at NASA. NASA Photo by Tom Tschida

    Center's future linked to mission directorate

    Dryden employees got a glimpse Jan. 6 of how the Center's activities fit in the goals of NASA's Exploration Systems mission directorate and how Dryden could play a bigger role in those goals in the future. Rear Adm. Craig E. Steidle, U.S. Navy (Ret.), NASA's associate administrator for Exploration Systems, delivered the preview.

  • Dr. Wernher von Braun, center, explains the Saturn launch system to President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 16, 1963, at Cape Canaveral, Fla. NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans is at left of von Braun. Image provided by James B. Hill, audiovisual archivist at the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library in Boston, Mass. NASA Photo

    NASA, Dryden center a new age

    At the beginning of John F. Kennedy's presidency, no one familiar with his public life could have predicted his decisive role in the early American space program. Indeed, until he entered the White House in January 1961, he showed virtually no enthusiasm for the subject. In fact, during the first weeks of the Kennedy Administration, NASA Administrator James Webb tried to interest the president in a project to fly astronauts to the moon.