NASA CENTER EMPLOYMENT, WORK RISING NEXT MANNED SPACECRAFT'S ESCAPE SYSTEM, FLYING TELESCOPE AMONG DRYDEN'S PROJECTS.

Byline: JIM SKEEN Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE -- After a period of uncertainty and reduced payrolls, NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center is entering 2007 with a slight uptick in employment and a slate of projects including managing a flying telescope and beginning work on an escape system for the nation's next manned spacecraft.

Dryden's employment, cut back to about 460 civilian workers in 2005, is rising. The number hit slightly more than 500 to start 2007 and is expected to reach about 535 civilians during the course of the year, said Dryden director Kevin Petersen.

``We're pleased with where Dryden is at,'' Petersen said. ``We have an exciting year lined up in 2007.''

Dryden is managing the flying-telescope program -- a partnership with NASA Ames Research Center in Northern California and the German Aerospace Center. More than 100 people will be involved in the program at Dryden.

A 48,000-pound telescope -- called the stratospheric observatory for infrared astronomy or SOFIA -- is to be installed into a Boeing 747 and would become the world's largest portable telescope.

``The airplane is in Waco, Texas, going through intensive modifications,'' Petersen said. ``We expect the airplane to be flown out to Dryden in the April time frame.''

For three to four years, Dryden will be expanding the aircraft's flight envelope and conducting some initial science experiments.

After four or five years, SOFIA will be fully operational and flying as many as 960 hours of science observations a year.

``It's a big project for Dryden,'' Petersen said.

None of Dryden's hangars can handle an aircraft the size of a Boeing 747, so officials are looking nearby.

They are in discussions with the Air Force about possible sites at Edwards and at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale.

The research center also will have a role in developing NASA's next manned spacecraft, the crew exploration vehicle, which will replace the space shuttle and serve as the cornerstone of efforts to return to the moon.

Abort system

Dryden will manage abort-flight test integration and operations for NASA's crew exploration vehicle that will replace the space shuttle fleet and serve as the keystone in plans to return astronauts to the moon.

The abort system will be a rocket system, including a solid rocket booster and crew module, that will sit at the very top of the launch stack.

In an emergency, the abort-system rocket would pull the crew module up and away, and the rocket would separate from the module. Then the module's parachute system would deploy to give the spacecraft a soft landing.

Although tests of the system won't occur until 2008, Dryden already is at work with its counterparts at NASA Johnson Space Center and with prime contractor Lockheed Martin to bring the system's development.

X-48B

A couple of unmanned aircraft are expected to take to the air in 2007 -- the Boeing Phantom Works X-48B and the Ikhana, a civilian version of the Predator B, a reconnaissance aircraft being used in the Middle East.

The X-48B will test a design concept called ``blended wing body'' that could provide more lift, greater range and as much as 30 percent greater fuel economy -- valuable for military tankers and transports.

Unlike the traditional ``tube and wing'' design -- a tubelike fuselage fitted with wings -- the blended-wing body merges the fuselage with the wing, producing something like a cross between a conventional aircraft and a flying wing such as the B-2 stealth bomber.

``The initial flying will be looking a low-speed flying characteristics of that configuration,'' Petersen said.

Lacking a conventional tail, the 21-foot-wide X-48B will be handled using 20 flight-control surfaces along the wing's edge.

The X-48B is one-twelfth the size of what a full-scale blended-wing body transport would be. The 500-pound plane is powered by three turbojet engines that will allow it to fly to altitudes up to 10,000 feet and at speeds of roughly 140 mph.

The aircraft will be controlled by a pilot in a ground station equipped to give the feeling of actually being inside the aircraft. The pilot will move a control stick and rudder pedals from an actual aircraft, and video images from the aircraft will be transmitted to the station to provide a view as it out of the cockpit window.

The Ikhana will be used for research and science programs requiring long-duration flying. One civilian possibility for the aircraft is in mapping wildfires, potentially a valuable tool for firefighters.

Dryden personnel are at General Atomics's facility at Grey Butte, just east of Palmdale, to learn how to fly the aircraft from a ground station and how to maintain the aircraft.

Another project Dryden is involved in is an effort by business-jet manufacturer Gulfstream to reduce sonic booms. Working with NASA, Gulfstream is testing out a device it dubs ``Quiet Spike,'' a telescoping pole that would be mounted on a jet's nose in hope of reshaping and quieting the pressure wave that causes sonic booms.

Gulfstream and NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base are testing the Quiet Spike on NASA's F-15B test aircraft, a converted Air Force fighter jet.