NASA is the national aeronautics and
space administration nasa has many
facilities around the United States and
the people working here have a variety
of jobs to do some work in aeronautics
others concentrate on improving aircraft
engines and still others are involved
with a space shuttle program and Space
Flight at all the center's many
specialized skills are needed the Dryden
Flight Research Center is NASA's primary
installation for flight research we're
located 90 miles north of Los Angeles on
the western edge of the mojave desert
the desert skies are clear and the
weather is good enough for year-round
flight testing also from dryden we have
access to over 20,000 square miles of
airspace for research flying we share
the same dry lake bed surface and hard
runway complex with Edwards Air Force
Base these are the same runways our
space shuttle fleet uses when they land
here flight testing programs began at
Dryden in the 1940s some of these
vehicles may look a bit silly by today's
standards but the many risks taken back
then helped shape flight as we know it
today the early X or experimental series
proved that man could fly faster than
the speed of sound test with the x-15 in
the 1950s and 60s helped the United
States develop a manned spacecraft this
funny-looking bird was the xb-70 during
its flights over Dryden NASA discovered
some things that made supersonic flight
with large aircraft more practical quite
a few wingless vehicles were pulled
through the air or flew from dryden
during the 1960s and 70s NASA was
looking for ways to prove spaceflight
was possible with a reusable vehicle
this research with the lifting bodies
led to today's space shuttle fleet
before all-electric flight control
systems and fly-by-wire technology were
put into today's aircraft they were much
heavier and slower
that's because mechanical rods and
connectors used to fly the aircraft were
made of heavier materials now computers
could relay the pilot instructions to
various parts of the aircraft in order
to maintain flight the supercritical
wing concept was also tested at NASA
Dryden it cuts through the air better
helping aircraft crews faster with less
fuel tests today at Dryden include
research with the f-18 high alpha
research vehicle ex31 sr-71 blackbird
f15 digital systems research aircraft
f-16 XL laminar air flow studies and
upper atmospheric studies with the
remotely piloted Perseus the people
working here need to know many things
like math science and computer skills
communication skills are important as
well we need to be able to speak clearly
and to be able to understand our fellow
workers now let's take a look at some of
the people and the labs and shops here
at the Dryden Flight Research Center
this is the thermal structures lab where
people test all aspects of aircraft
parts researchers would rather see what
affects heat and stress have on aircraft
components in a controlled environment
versus in flight also at Dryden we make
finally machined aircraft parts in
another section people build and install
sensitive electronics equipment and
other aircraft parts we maintain
aircraft communications and navigational
equipment technicians in the
environmental testing lab run the
equipment through simulated flight
conditions to ensure it's properly
working before it flies here is our flow
visualization lab or water tunnel model
airplanes are fitted with dive ends
which provide engineers with a way to
see how the dye flows around the
aircraft this flowing dye is similar to
air flowing around the aircraft in
flight adjustments made to the model can
also apply to
the aircraft and help improve flight
this is much less expensive than taking
the aircraft into the wind tunnel for
testing highly-skilled computer
technicians work in our data analysis
facility here's where flight research
data is processed and valuable flight
information is shared with other NASA
centers and test sites around the
country the people working in our
simulation labs need a wide variety of
highly technical and computer skills
aircraft flight simulators and computers
create situations that are helpful for
predicting how the aircraft will perform
in flight our specially equipped control
rooms are manned by experts who monitor
various research gathering missions from
the ground Dryden's life support team
keeps flight suits parachutes oxygen
supplies and other necessary equipment
ready for our flight crews to conduct
their research now as you can see NASA
has helped shape aviation down through
the years in many ways we have sent
people and machines into space to the
moon and are exploring other planets we
have satellites circling the globe that
help people better predict the weather
and information gathered from some of
NASA's computer simulations has even
been used to make artificial heart
valves the Dryden Flight Research Center
is a vital component in the overall NASA
picture what is being flight tested at
Dryden today will most likely have an
impact on tomorrow's air and spacecraft
how they'll look how they'll fly and how
safe they'll be