NASA TO MOVE AIRCRAFT TO EDWARDS.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

Overcoming congressional opposition, NASA officials said Monday they will move research aircraft this month from the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., to Dryden Flight Research Center.

As the first step in a proposed national consolidation that is still blocked by Congress but which NASA officials hope will eventually send 290 workers and 21 aircraft to Edwards, six Ames research aircraft and 80 workers will be transferred to Dryden.

``The plan is officially a go,'' said NASA spokesman Dwayne Brown. ``A transition plan is being outlined.''

In May 1995, NASA Administrator Dan Goldin announced a plan to consolidate research aircraft from five other centers across the United States in Dryden, part of a plan to trim $5 billion from the agency's budget by the year 2000.

The consolidation was delayed in September by the U.S. Senate because of concerns over its cost-effectiveness.

While NASA administrators said the move would pay for itself in three years through lower operating costs, the agency's own inspector general, calculating higher costs and much lower savings, said it would take 52 years.

Goldin announced the transfer of the Ames aircraft in a letter to Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, who battled against the consolidation plan for more than a year.

``The transition will begin immediately and is expected to be completed by January 1998,'' Goldin wrote. ``As I have discussed with you, this consolidation is expected not only to save money but to benefit both Ames and Dryden by allowing each center to focus on its primary mission.''

Dryden's primary mission is flight research, and the center over the last 40 years has tested such craft as the X-15 rocket planes and the space shuttle. Ames' primary mission is information technology.

The aircraft to be moved include two Lockheed ER-2 research jets, derivatives of the U-2 spy planes that are used for high-altitude environmental research. The planes have been used to sample the thinning ozone layer over the Arctic and to test the supersonic Concorde jet's exhaust.

Also coming to Edwards will be a converted DC-8 jetliner that can carry equipment for up to 30 experiments simultaneously.

NASA at present is only relocating aircraft now at Ames, but plans call for eventually relocating research aircraft at four other centers. The Senate last year forbade any money to be spent on consolidation until the agency addresses critics' concerns.

NASA's management believes consolidating aircraft operations at Dryden will result in nonrecurring costs of $8 million and provide an annual savings of $4.5 million. The move would pay for itself in less than three years, NASA officials said.

While NASA headquarters projected big savings, the agency's inspector general said the move would cost $11.3 million and produce savings of $218,049 a year, meaning it would take 52 years to recoup the costs - not counting inflation.

``NASA should re-evaluate its decision to implement the current aircraft consolidation plan because it is not cost-effective,'' an inspector general's report said. ``The greatest potential effect from consolidation will be the adverse impact on the efficiency, quality, effectiveness and/or timeliness of research efforts resulting from the separation of the aircraft from the center research capabilities.''

NASA administrators said they believe the inspector general's estimates are too pessimistic.

Aircraft involved in the consolidation include converted DC-8, DC-9 and 757 airliners and a modified C-130 cargo plane.