FLIGHT CENTER KEPT BREAKING BARRIERS : 50 YEARS CHRONICLED AT DRYDEN.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

To illustrate the know-how and drive at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, author Lane Wallace points to the ``lifting body'' flight tests of the 1960s and 1970s.

The program originated with engineer Dale Reed, who plucked a concept for an aircraft needing no wings - deriving its lift instead from its tubby fuselage - from data relegated to technical reports.

Reed won backing for the program from another engineer, Dick Eldredge, and research pilot Milt Thompson.

The first flight tests used an aircraft built from plywood and towed aloft by a souped-up Pontiac convertible racing across Rogers Dry Lake.

Dryden's director at the time, Paul Bikle, authorized the flight tests without NASA headquarter's approval - a move that could have cost him his career.

The program eventually led to the decision to have the space shuttles land like gliders, which meant they could be built without the extra weight of auxiliary jet engines.

The lifting body concept is now being used by Lockheed Martin ``Skunk Works'' in its plans to develop a new spacecraft that can fly into space without disposable rockets or fuel tanks.

``The whole background of the start of the lifting body program epitomizes their drive, determination and creativity,'' Wallace said. ``Put a brick wall in front of them, they will find a way over, around or through it.''

Wallace, an aviation writer who lives in Corona, recounts the story of the program in a new book, ``Flights of Discovery: 50 Years at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center,'' a book commissioned by NASA.

Wallace spent six months working on the book, making two or three trips a week to Edwards to conduct reviews and research the archives.

The book provides an overview of Dryden's achievements, which includes the first flights at Mach 1 and Mach 2, flights to the edge of space in the X-15 rockets, and contributions to the Apollo moon missions and to the design of the space shuttle.

The book also provides an overview of present-day projects, including testing the design for a ``lifeboat'' for the international space station, and testing of new technologies to allow high-altitude, slow flying aircraft to become satellites.

The book covers Dryden from Day One when Walt Williams and a handful of engineers from Langley Laboratory in Virginia set up shop in September 1946 along Rogers Dry Lake, which the Army Air Force had used since the early 1930s. At the time, the agency that would become NASA was known as the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.

``Initially, the mechanics and engineers lived in a small, ramshackle shantytown halfway between the (Air Force) South and North bases. The cluster of firetrap buildings there was known as `Kerosene Flats' because all heating and cooking had to be done with kerosene,'' Wallace wrote. ``An appalled visitor from the Langley Laboratory reported that the NACA employees had `the choice of working or going to bed to keep warm. Reading or writing in your quarters is impracticable because of facilities and temperatures.' ''

Wallace notes the early adjustments the NACA personnel had to make to the harsh desert climate, including having to sweep off their desks the dust that blew into the hangars.

``In part, they knew they were going to a remote outpost and hardly expected the lush green surroundings that existed at Langley. But there was also an acute awareness among the staff members that they were being given the chance to witness and help create history, and that that privilege was worth some sacrifices,'' Wallace wrote.

Complementing Wallace's text are color and black and white photographs gleaned from the archives at NASA and the Edwards Air Force Base history office and personal collections.

Among the photographs is a series of shots showing one of the most unusual - and definitely most spectacular - tests ever conducted at Dryden: the deliberate crashing of a Boeing 720 jetliner onto the lake bed. Called the Controlled Impact Demonstration, or CID, the 1984 test was conducted to determine whether a fuel additive that had shown promise in laboratory tests could prevent fuel fires during a plane crash.

The photos show the plane engulfed by a huge fireball when it struck iron posts embedded in the lake bed. The Federal Aviation Administration dropped plans for the additive.

Dryden researchers termed the test program ``Crash In the Desert.''

Published in soft cover and large format, ``Flights of Discovery: 50 Years at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center'' costs $42 and is available through the U.S. Superintendent of Documents by calling [phone]. The book's stock number is 033-000-01167-9.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1--color in AV edition only) A Boeing 720 explodes at Rogers Dry Lake. The 1984 test evaluated a new fuel additive's ability to prevent fires during crashes.

(2--ran in SAC only) A Boeng 720 takes off for a deliberate crash in Rogers Dry Lake bed. The test was done in 1984.

(3--ran in SAc edition only) The Controlled Impact Demonstration ends in a ball of fire. Plans were dropped for the fuel additive.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration