thank you George happy new year from
nasa's dryden flight research facility
on california's high desert I'm Don
Haley from the Dryden Public Affairs
Office one of the major highlights at
Dryden this past year was the opening of
this small teacher resource center since
we're fairly distant from the TRC's at
major NASA centers it's given our local
teachers easier access to NASA's
educational programs and the wealth of
materials available to them
expanding again on the education theme
we had special displays and guest
astronauts for students we invited from
the five Southern California counties
surrounding Dryden for the landing of
the Space Shuttle Endeavor on its maiden
flight last May the thousands of
students here saw for the first time a
drag chute used by a Space Shuttle
Orbiter
another highlight was the grand opening
of the integrated test facility the ITF
gives researchers the ability to operate
and observe various aircraft systems
simultaneously prior to their research
flight this unique capability speeds up
in enhances systems integration and
pre-flight checks on all types of
research aircraft and the ITF can be
used by up to six aircraft at the same
time
in the important area of high angle of
attack research Dryden this past year
was involved with three aircraft flying
these types of missions the f-18 the x31
and the x29
the f-18 with its three access thrust
vectoring system for high AOA
controllability achieved 70 degrees in
sustained flight in nasa's study of air
flow characteristics control surface
interaction and engine performance at
these flight conditions
researchers are also looking at the x31
with its thrust vectoring system for
greater maneuvering capability the x31
is being flown at Dryden by an
international test organization and it
has also reached 70 degrees angle of
attack in sustained flight the program
is managed by the defense advanced
research projects agency darpa and could
someday lead to fleets of
high-performance fighters with thrust
vectoring systems for better control
ability at high angles of attack
this past year Dryden participated in
another flight project with the x29
forward swept wing experimental aircraft
the third doing hi aoa work at Dryden
the unique aircraft was modified with
vortex flow controls at the nose in a
study of using small gas thrusters for
better control ability at high angles of
attack
it was a very successful project which
produced a lot of good research data in
a very short time
the triple sonic sr-71 is now being used
as a high-speed high-altitude research
platform and data from these types of
missions will be used in the development
of future high-speed civil transports
locally Dryden families and students
from nearby lake los angeles school our
adoptive school partners we're thrilled
when one of our three blackbirds cruise
over head during Dryden's family day
program
just before the holidays nasa's highly
modified 990 now a landing systems
research aircraft got into the air for
the first time in several years on a
functional check flight in preparation
for space shuttle landing gear systems
tests to begin soon as part of NASA's
ongoing effort to upgrade and improve
systems on the orbiters
discoveries last minute visit to Dryden
on December 9th rounded out this year's
Space Shuttle missions as it flew south
over the western edge of the United
States for midday landing on the main
runway at Edwards and Dryden shuttle
support crews will be eagerly awaiting
the missions of 1993 to help land and
service the orbiters when weather
diverts them to Dryden
as the new year began our aircraft crews
were busy at the Kennedy Space Center in
Florida preparing Dryden's venerable
b-52 to air launched a Pegasus space
booster from the pylon on the right wing
on a mission to place a Brazilian
satellite into orbit from
Dryden happy New Year to everyone with
NASA and now we go to Don James at the
Ames Research Center near San Fran just
go